Migration as an Experience of Speech and Communication in Polish Children’s Literature

In the twenty-first century, Polish children’s literature incorporates the migration discourse. Migration is presented primarily as a current experience of speech and communication, which is a form of updating children’s experiences and different situations. In contrast, heterochrony, hybridity of migratory phenomena, as well as the memory of native culture (referring to collective memory) are revealed in the experience of adults and affect the generational dimension of the change of place (by choice or under duress). The article presents selected works for children about migration as (1) a universal problem expressed through selected elements of fairy tales (Jarosław Mikołajewski’s Wędrówka Nabu [The Journey of Nabu’s]); (2) the (small) saga of the family (Barbara Gawryluk’s Tu teraz będzie nasz dom [Here will be our home now]); (3) representation of cultural differences (including gender as a cultural construct), which is the basis of the biographical story (Renata Piątkowska’s Która to Malala? [Which one is Malala?]). In each of these works, an important role is played by the literary genre, which specifies the way of presenting the child as a medium of migration.