Far From Home: Polish Emigration in Comics
Emigration is often a formative experience for artists – an opportunity to rediscover themselves from a new angle, and sometimes the only way to break free from past traumas. Let’s take a look at how Polish emigration stories, old and new, are told in the bold lines and rich colours of comics.
An émigré scene
A 2016 report from the Polish Statistical Department showed that more than 2.5 million people emigrated from Poland between 2004 and 2016, mostly attracted by higher salaries and improved living conditions. So, it is unsurprising that, as with the previous large wave of emigration, this theme is increasingly reflected in art. An émigré writers’ scene had clearly emerged by 2017, often centred on autobiographical events in the authors’ lives – e.g. Fajrant (Closing Time) by Andrzej Muszyński, W Cieniu Sheratona (In the Shadow of the Sheraton) by Ireneusz Gębski, and many other, often self-published texts. There have also been successful works on the theme in children’s literature: Matylda Wyjeżdża (Matylda Goes Away) by Justyna Zbroja, Czarny Młyn (The Black Mill) by Marcin Szczygielski, or Czerwone Piórko (The Red Feather) by Katarzyna Nawratek. The topic of emigration has also appeared in TV series such as Londyńczycy (Londoners) and songs (Ryanair and Wizzair by Hiob Dylan), and comic creators have also focused on issues surrounding the mass exodus from their country.
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'Nędzole' by Zbigniew Masternak & Robert Zaręba, photo: publisher's materials
The statistical report highlights Britain and Germany as the main emigration destinations for Poles, and close to a million have chosen to live in France. The hardships of migrants there are described in Nędzole (Les Misérables) by Zbigniew Masternak, the fourth volume in his autobiographical Królestwo (Kingdom) series, which was adapted as a graphic novel published by Kameleon in 2016. The author collected stories which were turned into a comic script by Robert Zaręba and given to eleven younger- and middle-generation artists (e.g. Nikodem Cabały, Tomasz Kleszcz, and Artur Chochowski), resulting in one of the most fascinating portraits of the émigré generation.
The author and scriptwriter plunge their heroes, Renata and Zbyszek, into tough situations and encounters with people who are against migrants (including amongst the Polish diaspora in France). They also underline that any migration is generally based on unfulfilled dreams. The comic’s pages introduce us to musicians longing for a career in the mythical West, writers dreaming of making it big in a language that is not their own, and avowed fans of ‘life on the dole’ (which is more readily achievable in Western European welfare states than in Poland). Abstaining from the biting satire and mockery so characteristic of Edward Redliński’s émigré prose, for example, Nędzole offers a panoramic view of contemporary emigration as a phenomenon which could touch almost every one of us.
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'Nędzole' by Zbigniew Masternak & Robert Zaręba, photo: publisher's materials
The stylistic diversity of these artists working in various techniques emphasises the spectrum of motivations for leaving. Coming up hard against the brutal realities of poverty, working for peanuts, and sleeping at friends’ houses is cushioned by the humorous, warm treatment the authors give their heroes. According to Nędzole, life in France is far from light, easy, or pleasant. Making it big there is as difficult as everywhere else but, just like any other place in the world, you can meet wonderful people and acquire vital experience. Considering that Krzysztof Zanussi has plans to adapt the original for the screen, this uncompromising collection of anecdotes and stories might well end up among the canon of Polish émigré literature.
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…& by the Thames
The life of Poles in England is seemingly less dramatic than Nędzole, judging by Agata Wawryniuk’s Rozmówki Polsko-Angielskie (Polish-English Phrasebook [Kultura Gniewu 2012, 2016]) and Monika Szydłowska’s Do You Miss Your Country? (Centrala, 2016). The first was incredibly successful, garnering nearly all the comic awards and distinctions in the year it premiered, and was revised and reprinted four years later. Why was Rozmówki so immensely popular? Possibly because the author depicted her émigré adventures cheerfully, with plenty of humour and detachment – even though her life in England was full of depressing, difficult situations at first. Through the various episodes, readers discover climactic points in every émigré’s life, such as travelling to the foreign country, finding their first flat and job, making their first local friends, and discovering the culture.
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As in the comics based on Masternak’s writings, Poles in England form a caste exploited by employers and landlords alike, but Wawryniuk is not wracked by the conviction occasionally voiced by characters in Nędzole – that it is due to a hostile conspiracy against all Polish citizens. Perhaps this is because the heroes of Rozmówki are somewhat better educated than Nędzole’s gallery of characters, or maybe they had less illusions before leaving their homeland. For Wawryniuk, the only point in emigrating is to earn money, and her heroine approaches the matter very pragmatically, rolling up her sleeves and taking any odd jobs. There are still some scenes that show her feeling sad and depressed, however – but by setting herself a clear goal, she is able to overcome temporary bouts of depression and implement her original plan.
A touch of cartoonish style and a fondness for little visual jokes make her stories agreeably light reading and, as a whole, Rozmówki Polsko-Angielskie is a shining example of an autobiographical comic with an optimistic moral, which is unusual for this genre and theme. In Wawryniuk’s view, emigration can be a positive phenomenon that shapes attitudes to life, and lengthy stints abroad teach us things about ourselves that we would not have discovered under other circumstances.
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Life in Edinburgh is the theme of Monika Szydłowska’s one-page cartoons, collected in the bilingual book Do You Miss Your Country? This comic started out as a blog called Na Emigracji (In Emigration), where the author, who has a degree in fine art from Poznań, shared watercolours depicting her first years in Scotland. This graphic technique was chosen to save money (when leaving Poland, she only took the bare minimum of art materials: watercolours and pencils), but it turned out to be perfect. The series gained so many fans that it found a publisher prepared to risk releasing her reminiscences in book form.
Szydłowska’s comic differs from Wawryniuk and Masternak’s stories by pointing out that, nowadays, emigration does not necessarily imply breaking all family ties and friendly relations with the folks back home. Many pages show the author online with friends and relations, trying not to lose touch with her language and culture as she gets accustomed to the new situation and people. Sometimes, she is seen as an oddity – the Scots have dozens of questions about Poland and being Polish, and the language has them in stitches. Polish people also die of curiosity, asking our heroine to regale them with pithy anecdotes about Scottish quirks and unfathomable customs.
Even so, she finds her niche in this new émigré life fairly quickly and effortlessly. Her comic contains no major drama; its main theme is everyday life – her first small steps in the new world, getting to know its post offices, shops, road signs, and rules. You will find no Polish émigré war stories here, but wonderful scenes, such as her explaining to Scots how two Poles might not hit it off immediately if they happen to meet abroad. Her detachment and humour make Do You Miss Your Country? closer to Wawryniuk’s Rozmówki, the main difference being that Szydłowska no longer intends to return to Poland, as she has found her place in Edinburgh.
View from the other side
The opening of the borders and joining the European Union led to a huge wave of emigration, but also inspired others to return after years abroad. Many who had left Poland for personal or political reasons could finally visit their homeland and contrast their memories with the reality. Most interesting of all were the reactions of their children, who were born and raised in other cultures and had no contact with Poland apart from those same memories.
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'Powrócisz Tu' (You'll Come Back) by Karolina Czyżewska, photo: publisher's materials
You’ll Come Back by Karolina Chyżewska (Centrala, 2015) shows Poland through the eyes of a girl born into a Polish family in Germany. Staying in the popular autobiographical genre, this comic describes the author’s arrival in Poland in 2012 to study at Kraków Academy of Fine Arts, and her attempts to define her national identity. The romantic, nostalgic memories of her mother, who emigrated to Germany in the 1970s, were far removed from the realities the author discovered in Poland a quarter of a century later.
Living in a dilapidated tenement overlooking Wawel Hill, Karolina pondered which of the aspects of Polish culture she had heard of from family stories made her want to seek out her Polish identity. She tried to find it – with varying degrees of success – by mixing with young Poles her own age. The Poland she discovered first-hand turned out to be a land of muted, sober colours (the entire comic is mostly in yellows, browns, and subdued reds), shy men, and rather prudish women. In 2012, it was hard to find any of the Poland from the legends of her mother, who emigrated as a rebellious reflex then went on to cultivate an image of her homeland as an incredibly beautiful place that oppressed its own citizens, especially women.
In 2012, Karolina experienced Poland as a normal European country that differed little from Germany or Italy, and was just as civilised and globalised, despite being slightly more run-down and chaotic. Ultimately, the national identity issue faded into the background, and it became her priority to strengthen the bond with her mother, find a palpable context for her memories, and add some flavour, scent, and colour. ‘As it turns out, family ties are the main thing’, said the author in an interview at Łódź Comics Festival. ‘They are what decides who we really are’.
This handful of titles published in recent years hardly allows us to speak of a trend for ‘émigré comics’, nor do they warrant any generalisation on the attitudes and motivations shown in the books. But we should give the creators their due for daring to tackle vital, relevant topics. Apart from the above titles, the emigration theme is also to be found in comics by Daniel Chmielewski, Wanda Hagendorn, and Denis Wojda.
In Zapętlenie (Looping) by Chmielewski, the experience of going to work in Spain was an event that made him decide to become a full-time artist.
For Wojda, emigration was a force that shaped the fates of his family for generations, as they travelled between Sweden and Poland and were forced to make tough choices concerning their identity. His book 566 Kadrów (566 Frames) is an ideal story of his daily search for himself at the intersection of two worlds. As in Chyżewska’s reminiscences, the principal theme of Wojda’s stories is family ties, for they define who we are, how we react, and what evokes the strongest nostalgia in us. Wherever those ties are forged – be it in Sweden or Poland – is of secondary importance.
The oppressive vision of Poland in You’ll Come Back resurfaces in Wanda Hagendorn and Jacek Frąś’s autobiographical comic Totally Not Nostalgia. Both books portray communist-era Poland as a patriarchal hell for women, with no room for independently minded girls – one of the major reasons why the previous generation of Polish women emigrated.
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Time will tell whether we ever see a truly masterful comic describing the 21st-century emigration of Poles – but the theme is plainly crucial to many authors and has led to some fascinating textual and graphic contemplation. Emigration has often been a key, formative experience for them, an opportunity to rediscover themselves from a new angle, and sometimes the only way to break free from past traumas. So, statistically, there are ever-increasing chances that a comic encapsulating the emigration experience of middle- and younger-generation Poles will emerge somewhere… perhaps abroad.
Originally written in Polish by Marceli Szpak, Nov 2017, translated by Mark Bence, Jun 2021
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