Odra − rzeka życzeń

The Oder as a topic in Polish literature has not enjoyed so much interest among artists and literary scholars as the Vistula. It is worth noting that before it became the symbol of the ideological-political discourse after World War II, it had appeared in the pages of Polish literature in various contexts of meaning much earlier. It appeared in the works of literature, not only chronicles, dated as early as the time of Romanticism. Later, the river played a part in ideological contexts in Polish literature of the period of  the Partitions. The Oder appeared anew in the works of the period 1918−1939 to richly manifest its presence in contemporary literature. The river, depending on the political and cultural situation of Poland, according to the wishes of external decision-makers or autonomous decisions of the writers, took on a specific form of art, bringing along content which reaches beyond geography or custom...