Teresa Torańska’s book of interviews with Jerzy Giedroyc

Abstract

This article discusses the origins of Teresa Torańska's unpublished book of her conversations with Jerzy
Giedroyc that took place in 1985–1987 in the dual context of her relations with the Paris-based Kultura and various
extended interviews given by Giedroyc to other authors. The manuscript is housed at the Research Lab for the Study
of the Literary Institute in Paris at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University (UMCS) in Lublin. In acknowledgment of
its high documentary value the book is to published in a critical edition. The string of conversations, recorded at
a time when Poland was groping its way out of the martial law debacle, contain a number of notable comments from
Giedroyc on the current political situation, his recollections of the pre-World War II world, thumbnail sketches of
various characters from the Kultura in-crowd, etc. But it is the theme of emigration in its multiple facets, social and
political, that runs like a red thread through his reflections. More insights into the mind of the Prince of Maisons-
Laffitte can be gleaned from his letters to Teresa Torańska which she included in the book. Finally, this article
follows up the traces of her presence in the Kultura microcosm and connects them into a figure of partnership and
commonality, bridging a generation gap that would appear insurmountable.