Kathleen Cioffi-review of "Toward Xenopolis", The Polish Review, November 2024 (original) (raw)

This collection of essays is a profoundly humanistic book. The work of the Foundation innovatively links the arts and humanities with the project of integrating the diverse peoples who people the xenopolis. Czyżewski speaks more about artists and writers than he does about politicians. Yet, as an American reader, I found my thoughts drifting again and again to our own situation. Clearly, Czyżewski wants to “use rhetoric and tell stories that expand the definition of ‘we.’” Could the Borderland’s methodology and solutions apply here, in our own polarized polity? On the one hand, America is more or less the ultimate xenopolis; on the other, we are in a historical moment where a great many people would like to eliminate those unlike them from the polis altogether. We can be inspired by the Borderlanders’ fearless resolve to pay attention to the Others among us, to listen to their narratives, and to mutually pay attention to what the whole population has to say while still not minimizing the fear that this process evokes. ...Can the Borderland philosophy, as articulated in Toward Xenopolis, play a part in creating out of us—not only Central Europeans, but Americans too—what Czyżewski calls neimars (bridge builders)? I think he would say that this process is long and hard, but with patience, it can be achieved. I hope so.