Forms of exilic consciousness in the essays of Czesław Miłosz and Vytautas Kavolis in the 1950s–1960s

Abstract

This article aims to describe possible forms of exilic consciousness on the basis of texts pu¬blished in the 1950s–1960s by two distinct, but in their exilic experiences rather similar intellectuals: Czesław Miłosz’s “The Captive Mind” (1953) and Vytautas Kavolis’s “The Generation of the Landless: Sketches of an Exilic Worldview” (1968). The article advances several arguments of primary relevance to exile studies. It proposes, first, the existence of at least two distinct forms of exilic consciousness, named as subjective and objective. Second, it argues that an individual who has been compelled to leave and may therefore be regarded as an exile does not necessarily possess exilic consciousness. Third, it contends that exilic consciousness may develop even when an individual remains living under conditions that promote departure, provided that these conditions are actively resisted through deliberate acts of consciousness.