Seminar 4-5pm – 14 May – Künnej Takaahaj

Seeing the "East" Otherwise: The Ethnographic and Literary Legacy of Wacław Sieroszewski (1858–1945)

I briefly explore the ethnographic and literary legacy of Wacław Sieroszewski (1858–1945), a Polish political exile whose deportation to Siberia (Yakutia) in 1879 became a decisive turning point in his life. While Sieroszewski is recognised in the field of Siberian studies for his ethnographic writings on the Sakha people (Yakuts), significantly less attention has been paid to his literary output, often marked by anticolonial sensibilities, and his field research in East Asia (Japan, Korea, China). I argue that his fictional writings should not be read in isolation from his lived experience and ethnographic inquiry; rather, they are deeply entangled with his observations and reflections as an anticolonial political exile.

His status as a political exile meant that he lived among Indigenous communities not as a distant observer, but as someone embedded in the everyday realities of local life. This led him to develop an empathetic, narrative-driven mode of ethnographic representation that blurred the lines between literature and science. His work reflects less a colonial gaze than a form of embedded witnessing.

In my presentation, I focus on two of Sieroszewski’s journeys to the East: his first, a fourteen-year political exile during which he traversed vast Siberian territories; and his later return to political activism in Poland, culminating in a research expedition to Northeast Asia (1903–1904), during which he travelled via the Trans-Siberian and Chinese Eastern Railways. These journeys found expression in his literary narratives and memoirs. By analysing his work through an anticolonial perspective, I propose a reevaluation of Sieroszewski’s contribution to both ethnography and literature, seeing the East otherwise.

Finally, I would like to propose a discussion on the contrasting ethnographic experiences of Wacław Sieroszewski and Bronisław Malinowski, focusing on how their respective positions and methodological approaches shaped their understanding of "the field."

BIO: 

Dr Kyunney Takasaeva (original name in the Sakha language - Künnei Takaahai) coordinates the Polish-Siberian Research Group at the Faculty of Artes Liberales in the University of Warsaw (Poland). She is the author of a monograph (in Polish) entitled ‘Yakut works by Wacław Sieroszewski (1858-1945) and cultural changes of the Sakha’ (2020, Warsaw: DiG). In her academic work, she focuses on identity and the art of Indigenous peoples of Siberia and the USA. Her research also explores the cultural links between Poland and Siberia, including Polish studies of Siberian territories. Dr Takaahai is involved in popularising the cultures of Indigenous peoples of Siberia. She collaborates with international cultural institutions and universities and organises lectures, exhibitions, film screenings, and discussions on contemporary Siberian art and folklore.