Young-old conflict in the womb of the second independence emigration (on the example of the London environment in years 1949–1966). Part I

Abstract

Transgenerational conflicts, complaints of the representatives of the older generation on the younger one, objections put forward by the latter to the former are phenomena equally common and, one may say, everlasting (even Plato complained about the Athens youth). War emigrants who found their places in the West of Europe right after they finished their active participation in fights, most frequently left their homeland as mature and well-shaped people. They were assumed as the “old” generation. They were accompanied by children and the youth who got their education in the foreign land, started employment, settled families and also took their first steps on the cultural ground. They were assumed as the “young” generation. Taking these names into quotation marks is justified by their large conventionality, their instability and changeability in time. As I will attempt to prove in this text, the line separating the “old” from the “young” did not only refer to their dates of birth and the age line of division did not definitely settle the whole matter. It was so the more that part of the “young” also took active part in fight and after its ending despite the “old’s” expectations did not share their views and convictions. This problem being connected with others such as the relation to the past and history, relations with the homeland, patriotism and relations to Polishness1 is wide and multithread enough that there is no way to present it in its entirety. Thus I am going to focus on its part which seems to me particularly important for understanding socio-mental relations and structures of the second independence emigration. The subject of my reflection will be texts and speeches showing this conflict which appeared in the circle of published in London students’ journals in years 1949-1966 around which the later poets’ group Continents was established. This outline presents the chronological order of the conflict, the evolution of the way of thinking of both sides, the most important points of ignition and most visible differences and divisions revealed in this conflict. Due to richness of materials and problems requiring discussion this text has been divided into two parts. The first part comprises years 1949-1954. At that time the conflict emerged and unusually dynamically it developed leading to a clear difference between emigration generations (as it will be shown in the second part of the outline four stages of the conflict can be distinguished in this period). The second part begins with presenting the events of 1955 when the definite division between the „old” and the „young” happened. It is mainly about the November events in Manchester which can be viewed as the climax of the conflict and which initiated its fall. Discussing it along with the division into two phases (the fifth and sixth) ends with a summary and conclusions concerning the course of the conflict.