"Women of the Kresy" : the female in the works of Józef Antoni Rolle – from history to literature and myth

The article offers an analysis of depictions of women in Józef Apolinary Rolle’s literary output. The source material are Rolle’s numerous short stories published in a number of collections and series in 1872-1894, including a collection entitled Women of the Kresy. In his works Rolle created the myth of woman of the eastern territories of interwar Poland (Kresy Wschodnie), a courageous amazon, a female warrior, by sketching portraits of historical gures of the 16th and 17th centuries. In the short story entitled Women in Kamianets under Turkish Siege (1672) the author expressed this myth in a collective portrait of women of different nationalities and faiths who defended the fortress of Kamianets Podil’skij against the Turks. In other works Rolle depicted women engaged in politics and struggling to strengthen their family’s position. The latter attitude became dominant in the 18th century, when women were no longer directly engaged in warfare. The women described by Rolle enjoy considerable individual freedom, which provides thems with more opportunities (including the freedom to choose a husband and the freedom to divorce) compared to their compatriots in the Polish west. Women who lived in partitioned Poland in the 19th century were depicted by Rolle as ones who were responsible for the family, and for the transmission of family traditions, which fits in with the myth of the Polish Mother. More broadly, the image of women of the Kresy fits in with the myth of the region itself. This tradition was continued and developed in the early 20th century by the author’s son, the historian and publicist, Michał Rolle, among others.