Threads of vulnerability : Migrant precarity and class-sensitive nostalgia in Wioletta Grzegorzewska’s autofiction
Chowaniec, Urszula Ulla LU
(2025)
In Journal of Postcolonial Writing
61(4).
p.582-595
- Abstract
This article explores migrant precarity and class-sensitive nostalgia in the autofiction of Wioletta Grzegorzewska (Greg), a Polish-born writer whose work portrays the complexities of eastern European migration to the United Kingdom. Her narratives challenge idealized notions of transnational mobility by foregrounding linguistic displacement, economic insecurity, cultural alienation, and systemic marginalization. Through texts such as Island Notebook, Swallowing Mercury, Students’ Halls, Wolf’s River, and Secret Conductors of Clouds, Grzegorzewska constructs a nuanced critique of the conditions shaping contemporary migrant life. Employing postcolonial and feminist theoretical frameworks focused on class, gender, and mobility, this... (More)
This article explores migrant precarity and class-sensitive nostalgia in the autofiction of Wioletta Grzegorzewska (Greg), a Polish-born writer whose work portrays the complexities of eastern European migration to the United Kingdom. Her narratives challenge idealized notions of transnational mobility by foregrounding linguistic displacement, economic insecurity, cultural alienation, and systemic marginalization. Through texts such as Island Notebook, Swallowing Mercury, Students’ Halls, Wolf’s River, and Secret Conductors of Clouds, Grzegorzewska constructs a nuanced critique of the conditions shaping contemporary migrant life. Employing postcolonial and feminist theoretical frameworks focused on class, gender, and mobility, this article examines how her autofiction juxtaposes intimate recollections of childhood in post-communist Poland with the often-harsh realities of life in the British low-wage economy. It argues that Grzegorzewska’s work offers an essential counter-narrative to dominant discourses of European integration and cosmopolitan success, foregrounding the hitherto overlooked and under-represented struggles of eastern European women within the expanding global precariat.
(Less)
- author
- Chowaniec, Urszula Ulla
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- conteporary women’s writing, migration, Polish autofiction, Polish prose, Wioletta Grzegorzewska, working class in literature
- in
- Journal of Postcolonial Writing
- volume
- 61
- issue
- 4
- pages
- 14 pages
- publisher
- Routledge
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:105017044385
- ISSN
- 1744-9855
- DOI
- 10.1080/17449855.2025.2535695
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Publisher Copyright: © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
- id
- 808dcd38-0a7b-474f-ad45-d21c01b6a0c7
- date added to LUP
- 2025-12-08 15:14:50
- date last changed
- 2025-12-09 03:47:29
@article{808dcd38-0a7b-474f-ad45-d21c01b6a0c7,
abstract = {{<p>This article explores migrant precarity and class-sensitive nostalgia in the autofiction of Wioletta Grzegorzewska (Greg), a Polish-born writer whose work portrays the complexities of eastern European migration to the United Kingdom. Her narratives challenge idealized notions of transnational mobility by foregrounding linguistic displacement, economic insecurity, cultural alienation, and systemic marginalization. Through texts such as Island Notebook, Swallowing Mercury, Students’ Halls, Wolf’s River, and Secret Conductors of Clouds, Grzegorzewska constructs a nuanced critique of the conditions shaping contemporary migrant life. Employing postcolonial and feminist theoretical frameworks focused on class, gender, and mobility, this article examines how her autofiction juxtaposes intimate recollections of childhood in post-communist Poland with the often-harsh realities of life in the British low-wage economy. It argues that Grzegorzewska’s work offers an essential counter-narrative to dominant discourses of European integration and cosmopolitan success, foregrounding the hitherto overlooked and under-represented struggles of eastern European women within the expanding global precariat.</p>}},
author = {{Chowaniec, Urszula Ulla}},
issn = {{1744-9855}},
keywords = {{conteporary women’s writing; migration; Polish autofiction; Polish prose; Wioletta Grzegorzewska; working class in literature}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{4}},
pages = {{582--595}},
publisher = {{Routledge}},
series = {{Journal of Postcolonial Writing}},
title = {{Threads of vulnerability : Migrant precarity and class-sensitive nostalgia in Wioletta Grzegorzewska’s autofiction}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17449855.2025.2535695}},
doi = {{10.1080/17449855.2025.2535695}},
volume = {{61}},
year = {{2025}},
}