Sadomasochistic Colonization of the Other – In the Other and the Self: “But That’s Poland”

Sadomasochistic fascism is commonplace in today’s world; this impulse is the seed of own modest, ultranationalist iteration of self-colonization. To free oneself, then, is a matter of sublimation, or of joining with the “human family” and other species, pushing toward diverse forms of life, coalitions between cultures (as Zygmunt Bauman proposed), and the celebration of difference (following Julia Kristeva). This is a matter of cultivating hospitality towards the Other and (as Cezary Wodziński wrote), hosting-otherness. This takes on special meaning in our part of Europe, as we know from the excellent postcolonial scholarship of Renata Salecl, Maria Todorova and Nataša Kovačević, the curatorial projects of Natalia Chermalych, and finally, from what is inscribed on our own skin.