Stress, Freedom and Self-Transformation in Central European Life Writing: The Works of Yuri Andrukhovych and Andrzej Stasiuk

Abstract

This article explores a research problem inspired by Peter Sloterdijk’s definition of societies as stress-integrated force fields. Sloterdijk contends that, during the Enlightenment, individuals discovered a distinct pleasure in distancing themselves from systems of collective stress. Literature, particularly autobiography, served both as a catalyst and a medium for these retreats from the community. Contemporary Central European autobiographical writing has developed specific strategies for both reducing and intensifying social stress. Following Milan Kundera, this article defines Central Europe as a ‘zone of small nations’, situated between East and West and threatened by unwelcome interference from either side. This paper addresses two research questions: firstly, whether and how autobiographical texts from the past forty years have articulated, alleviated, or generated community-building stress in Central Europe; and secondly, whether and how these texts have expressed and supported the transformation and relocation of subjects within or beyond the stress-generating communities. This article seeks partial answers in the autobiographical works by Yuri Andrukhovych and Andrzej Stasiuk, focusing on the relationship between stress and freedom in their life writing against the backdrop of fundamental geopolitical transformations in Europe.