Światło ze Wschodu. O "Esejach nie całkiem polskich" Tokimasy Sekiguchiego

Abstrakt

The article discusses thoroughly the book “Eseje nie całkiem polskie” [Not Entirely Polish Essays] by Tokimasa Sekiguchi, a professor at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. In his book, the author focuses on the issue of transculturality. The book consists of three parts. The first is mostly about historical and literary contexts. Sekiguchi writes about different aspects of works by Herbert, Miłosz and Szymborska. The second part is actually one essay entitled “Asia Does Not Exist”. Two issues are worthy of attention in this part. On the one hand, we can see Sekiguchi as a precursor of Postcolonial Studies; on the other, we see quite an original take on problems known from such classic works like “Orientalism” by E.W. Said. The third part of Sekiguchi’s book has a slightly different character. The essays here are more personal, and some of them could be read as a semi-literary works. A very thorough study of the essays leads the author of the article to the conclusion that the pivotal aspect of Sekiguchi’s work is a change of perspective: while Sekiguchi looks at Poland’s internal affairs from the outside, he has a lot to say to us, Poles and to other nations as well.