Lodz in the Polish young adult novel of the 21st century

Abstract

The article aims to analyze four selected youth novels written in the last two decades, the action of which takes place in Lodz. The analyzed collection consists of the titles: Son of a Thief by Grażyna Bąkiewicz and Fifth of the Quartet, You Can Choose Who You Want to Eat and The Restaurant Day by Dorota Combrzyńska-Nogala. In addition to an attempt to place the above works against the background of existing prose for young readers related to Lodz, four other issues constituting the literary image of the city were also discussed. First of all, attention was paid to the specificity of Lodz realities and the functions of the motif of young heroes wandering through the streets of Lodz. Secondly, the way of showing family relations and the phenomenon of role reversal was compared with the theses of historians about the situation of children in Lodz in the past. Thirdly, attention was paid to an interesting and recurring vision of the city as a multi-layered space. Finally, the concept of palimpsest was used, relating it to the image of Lodz functioning simultaneously in the real sphere and in the sphere of memory. The ways of textualizing Łódź indicated here lead to the conclusion that youth literature, although not free from the stereotypical image of an unwanted, gray and criminal city, also proposes a different concept of it - a city that is “one’s own”, “strong”, with which the characters have important, although sometimes difficult bonds and whom they do not want to leave.