„Stworzyć tu naprawdę śliczną a bogatą kolonię polską”. Polskie międzywojenne opisywanie Peru

Abstract

The article shows how Polish authors described Peru in the interwar period (1918–1939) and what influenced their writing. Most of the texts on Peru were written in the years 1928–1933 and were related to the idea of creating Polish colonies for emigrants in this country. The books of Kazimierz Warchałowski, Michał Pankiewicz and Mieczysław Lepecki were propaganda works. Their goal was to encourage Polish farmers to leave, which is why they depicted Peru in an idealized way. There are also texts criticizing the plan of establishing colonies, in which life in Peru is shown more realistically. The exception is Arkady Fiedler’s travel book, in which the author tries to fashion himself as an exceptional traveler-explorer. For this reason, he describes Peru as an unknown and dangerous place.