Polish-Austrian Weaves of Memory in Ewa Lipska’s Novel Sefer

Abstract

The subject of theoretical considerations and textual analysis is the memory and layers of time in Ewa Lipska’s novel Sefer (2009). The author of the article reflects on the weaves of memory in the life of the protagonist, who is “Viennese and the citizen of the world”, and answers the question of what the traumatic memory was which burdened his psyche and the independent development of his personality. The theme of memory connects the plot threads, the past and the experience of the present. Memory is also a glue that merges two different, and at the same time close to each other, cultures, Polish and Austrian, signaling their intertwining in the world of “global values”.