„Posągi dawnych mieszkańców” i imperium rozrywki. Ambiwalencja obrazu Indian w "Tomku na wojennej ścieżce"

Abstract

The text focuses on the analysis of themes related to Indigenous Americans in the best-selling novel by Alfred Szklarski. The image of Native Americans presented in it is ambivalent. On the one hand, Szklarski, replicating epic tropes, refers to the theme of “vanishing Indians” from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and expresses regret for the lost past. On the other hand, he situates them in the context of Wild West shows and “ethnographic exhibitions”, which, during the time depicted in his book, expressed the triumph of Western knowledge and strength over “wildness”.