In-Between Empire: Imperial Exceptionalism, Poland, and Colonial Travel Writing (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781350498679)

Exploring how Polish writers positioned themselves as neither colonized nor colonizers, In-Between Empire analyses their literary works on empire during the 19th and 20th centuries to explore how they negotiated their in-between position in the global imperial hierarchy. Leveraging this vantage point, they claimed the unique ability to represent the South to the West, constructing a Polish national identity in conversation with both imperial and anti-imperial currents, and influencing international discourse on colonialism and its legacy.

Written at the nexus of historical and literary studies of imperial and colonial discourse, Patton centres Poland and Eastern Europe in debates that have frequently excluded these perspectives. Showing how these Polish writers attempted to portray anticolonial solidarity with non-European victims of colonialism, yet also employed European colonial tropes, each writer demonstrated a distinctive ability to identify the tensions and flaws of imperialism, whilst simultaneously reconciling those tensions to themselves as 'exceptional Europeans', innocent of colonialism, by alternating between metropolitan and peripheral perspectives. In doing so, they informed transnational discourses and policies on colonialism, decolonization, the Cold War and beyond.

Author: Raymond Patton
ISBN-10: 135049867X
ISBN-13: 9781350498679
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Language: English
Published: 05/28/2026
Pages: 280
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 1.00d