Book Discussion: Treading Paths: Lemko Literature in the Years 1848-1918, by Helena Duc-Fajfer

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Brief Description

When the first history of Carpatho-Rusyn literature Straddling Borders: Literature and Identity in Subcarpathian Rus'(2003) appeared, its author Elaine Rusinko described the "excitement of discovering an entire literature, hitherto unrecognized by western scholarship." Helena Duc-Fajfer's Treading Paths: Lemko Literature in the Years 1848-1918 (2024) can make a similar claim. First published in Polish, the English translation of Duc-Fajfer's monograph is the first comprehensive, interpretive history of Lemko literature from its emergence in the mid-nineteenth century to the interwar period in the twentieth century. It surveys all the major Lemko authors of the period, their most prominent literary genres (including the rise of the Lemko novel), and how they cultivated Lemko identity in works of belles-lettres. The roundtable will interrogate the arguments of Treading Paths and how Duc-Fajfer reconceives the history of Carpatho-Rusyn, Polish, and East Slavic literature and culture. The roundtable features scholars of Carpatho-Rusyn literature (Elaine Rusinko), East Slavic literature (David Powelstock), Polish literature (Agnieszka Jezyk), and Lemko history (Bogdan Horbal).

Sub Unit

• Literature: 19th Century

Chair

• Nicholas Kyle Kupensky, US Air Force Academy

Roundtable Members

• Helena Duc-Fajfer, Jagiellonian U (Poland)

• Bogdan Horbal, New York Public Library

• Agnieszka Karolina Jezyk, U of Washington

• David Powelstock, Brandeis U

• Elaine Rusinko, U of Maryland, Baltimore County