La carte déplacée

Where is Poland? This is the question Przemysław Czapliński asks as he embarks on a journey through Polish letters along the East-West and South-North axes. Drawing on Polish and foreign literature, reportages and press to understand the changes and fissures in Polish society at the juncture of the 20th and 21st centuries, this brilliant essay proposes a new cartography that repositions Poland on the map of Europe, shifts the centre of it and explores the porosity of borders. In his study of how Poland sees itself and its neighbours, Czapliński explores the causes of the phenomenon of civilisational drift at work in Poland, which are not economic or political, but lie in culture - in other words, in shared imaginations. The book also provides knowledge and understanding of Europe in times of peace and war, prosperity and climatic and migratory crises.