Home of Postmemory: Lemko Poetry as a Space of Cultural Reconstruction

Abstract

HOME OF POSTMEMORY: LEMKO POETRY AS A SPACE OF CULTURAL RECONSTRUCTION

The article analyzes the image of the home in Lemko poetry of the self-representational movement, represented by the works of Władysław Graban, Helena Duć-Fajfer, and Stefania Trochanowska. These authors, born after the forced resettlements, construct their own vision of Lemkovyna on the basis of intergenerational transmission; thus, in their poetry, the home is not merely a tangible space but above all a postmemory figure—a lost place whose presence is re-created through language, imagination, and affective experience. In this context, the home becomes a symbol of connection with history and community, its image shaped by the tension between the absence of material heritage and the need for rootedness and reconstruction. The sensory dimension plays a crucial role—smells, sounds, and textures activate memory in a bodily mode, deepening the emotional intensity of the narrative. The analysis identifies five temporal frames in which the home is situated: (1) the un-lived home (past), (1½) the un-protected home (moment of resettlement), (2) the un-present home (present), (2½) the un-rooted home (time of searching), and (3) the un-forgotten home (future). Each of these categories reveals a different mode of experiencing loss and envisioning renewal—from inherited remembrance, through the encounter with absence, to the projection of reconstruction. The home in this poetry is therefore not a physical site of memory but a postmemory space, where past and present intersect, and its elements—the threshold, the door, the stove, the window—function as carriers of rootedness, trauma, and cultural continuity. In this way, the images of home perform a reconstructive role: they not only recall a lost world but also actively participate in shaping contemporary Lemko identity, intertwining memory, affect, and literary creation.