"Tamed", or how to escape from hell?

"Wyjarzmiona," or the story of a poor girl from the countryside, as told by herself (Margines Publishing House) – this is Renata Bożek's latest novel. On Tuesday, August 5th, at the Przemyśl Public Library, the author spoke about the genesis of the book. The conversation was moderated by Adam Wiedemann, a distinguished Polish poet, prose writer, essayist, literary critic, and translator. Agata Pilawa, the library's director of library resources at PBP and the originator of the event, welcomed the participants.

Renata Bożek, a prose writer and journalist, studied psychology at the Jagiellonian University and social sciences at the School of Social Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. She is the president of the Rural Writers' Association and co-founder of the online literary magazine "Pole." Her doctoral studies resulted in her first novel, "Madame Bluebeard." (2005), describing the beginnings of Warsaw hipsterism, an alternative to mainstream culture. She published the novella "Pies" (Dog), a literary account of her feelings after the loss of her beloved dog, Teresa, online. Renata Bożek is also a co-author of the prose series of the Association of Rural Writers. She lives in Warsaw and her home village of Karpiówka, near Kraśnik in the Lublin Voivodeship.

She began work on her latest book in 2018. During the meeting, she explained why the process took seven years. "I was gathering detailed historical research on the realities of the 19th-century Polish countryside. And along the way—as we remember—there was the pandemic, and then the search for a publisher. That was bound to take time," said the author of "Wyjarzmiona." The novel is divided into three parts: the Village, the Manor, and the City. In each of these places, Rozalka fights for herself and survival.

In the cover ad, the publisher describes "Wyjarzmiona" as follows: "A picaresque novel about a country girl who takes fate into her own hands. The story begins in 1981, when Rozalka Balawender, a ragged peasant child, with a prayer on her lips (...) swears revenge on a young lord. Fifteen years later, in a silk dress, she is preparing to marry a wealthy fiancé. What made this social advancement possible? What crimes and vices led to it? The adventures of this extraordinary girl are a story about climbing the social ladder. Standard "gentlemanly" Polish is mixed with the dialect of the Lublin village, and the fictional characters encounter figures known from history. A historically costumed voice in the discussion about social inequality and the chances of escaping one's place of origin. Finally, it is a story about the power of difference and the force that drives a person to develop and change."

"'Wyarzmiona' is a science fiction novel for me," Wiedemann said at the meeting. "Besides its downright naturalistic realism, the story is highly contrived. Because this world is described with a certain refined exaggeration. It's already so bad there that it couldn't get any worse. Rozalka has been through three circles of hell."

"It was even worse," Bożek retorted. "This book began with my interest in the history of peasants and a dream. In it, I saw a ragged peasant child in the marshes. The child was watching a Polish officer drown in the swamp. The story in the book is perhaps twenty percent invented, and all those—as you said—naturalistic descriptions stemmed from my very thorough reading of the situation in the Polish countryside in the first half of the nineteenth century. Rozalka came from a land of flat-earthers. There, everyone still believed the earth was flat. There was no school, no doctor, and a quilt was the most effective remedy for all ailments and fears. I had to understand how a nine-year-old child, later an adult, felt, thought, as she spoke. The diaries from that period, written by Kazimierz Deczyński, a teacher of peasant descent, were very helpful. He described how the manor and the squire treated the peasants. Violence in the countryside was absolutely everyday then. Not only from the manor, but also from her own family." Beating women was natural. We had colonialism, Polish style. The only difference, compared to slavery in America, was that in Poland at the time, you couldn't buy an individual peasant, but you could buy an entire village. I was sickened by this reading," said Renata Bożek.

During the discussion, one of the meeting participants asked Renata Bożek about her peasant identity and what she values about it.

"I get this toughness of character," said the author of "Wyjarzmiona." "I get it from my peasant ancestors: my great-grandparents, my grandparents. It's not that if I have a difficult job to do, I don't do it. When I was young, there were times when I'd burst into tears in the evening, but in the morning you have to get up and go to work. It's a generally important trait in life—to keep going, to keep from falling apart. Rozalka, my heroine, succeeded. She lifted the yoke. She didn't give up. The novel ends when she's twenty-three. She's getting ready for her wedding. But what will happen to her next?"

– asked Renata Bożek at the end of the meeting.

Artur Wilgucki

"Violence in the countryside was absolutely everyday then. Not only from the court, but also from one's own family. Beating women was natural," said Renata Bożek, author of "Wyjarzmiona."