Abstract
Masculinity studies are flourishing in Poland. Alongside summaries of Western theories, we have works on the distinctiveness of the Polish development of masculinity, including monographs on various topics, as well as analyses of individual authors and works. Some of these studies cover the Interwar years. Nevertheless, untouched areas remain, one of the largest being drama. Popular, Interwar comedy, written almost exclusively by men, drew large crowds to theaters and reflected the insecurities of a whole generation of men. Some of the biggest theatrical successes came from authors with right wing, Christian nationalist views, such as Stefan Kiedrzyński, Włodzimierz Perzyński, and Adam Grzymała-Siedlecki. All of them evinced a patriotic nostalgia for the patriarchal “estate” myth [mit dworku], a myth that seemed ever more improbable as social changes spread rapidly after 1918. The following analyzes Adam Grzymała-Siedlecki's Spadkobierca [The Heir] to explore the conflict between such nostalgia for an idyllic life on a rural estate and the social reality of the Interwar period, with special attention to the significance of this friction for the writer's image of Polish masculinity after World War I.
