Dom dzienny, dom nocny Olgi Tokarczuk. W poszukiwaniu utraconej tożsamości

Abstract

The article participates in the ‘post-modernist debate’ and attempts to look into the issue of post-modernism in the Polish native environment. The problems emerge as a result of the analysis of the novel by Olga Tokarczuk entitled Dom dzienny, dom nocny. Intertextuality, which is the author’s intentional devise, is the main issue here together with the function of discourse. Dialogues, quotations and literary allusions designate a multi- level reception of the work. The problem that comes into play is the boundary between originality and intertextual connotations introduced by the author. The important part comes with the analysis of the motif of home and the categories of time and space that are especially important and characteristic of the novel. Home perceived as the ‘universe’ makes us consider the longing for the lost identity and condition of the man at the end of the 20th century. The sense of roots and uprooting, mythological interpretation of the home, and finally the world conceived as a puzzle call for the discussion about conflicting global and identity tendencies. The article attempts to answer the question of what this ‘true home’ is and what it is like.