Comparing the autobiographic works of two Jewish authors: a Polish one Aleksander Rozenfeld and a Czech one Karol Sidon, I revealed two different attitudes towards one’s identity. Sidon’s one concentrates on his situation among his family. His narrator tries to find himself in a relation to his fathers (to his own killed in the war period and to the present step-father) in Sen o mém otci (1968) and to his mother and wife in Sen o mně (1970). His identity can be called „private“, in comparison to Rozenfeld’s „national“ view of identity. Rozenfeld’s narrator searches for his place in the Jewish and Polish nation. Although he claims, that his true identity lies in the language (Polish), he is an “in-betweener”. Finally, he is aware that he can not get rid of his uncomfortable Jewish identity even by baptism and by becoming a catholic. This point of view is present both in his two collections of poems Wybór wierszy (1976-1989) (1990) and Wiersze na koniec wieku (2000) and (in his) prosaic text Prawo o podanie powrotu (1990). It seems that he feels the best on the way from one Polish town to another. His identity is tightly linked to trains, railway stations etc.

Droga do tożsamości Aleksandra Rozenfelda i Karola Sidona (PDF)