Book excerpt: Reading contemporary womenâ (TM)s writing as melancholy texts highlights their often under-explored neuralgic nature and emancipatory value. These â oestrangers in their own lands, â as most recent Polish women writers and their work were described, are the subject of detailed analysis in this book, and are also positioned as the mirrors in which those lands are reflected. From this perspective, the melancholic strands in womenâ (TM)s writing are drawn together to provide a diagnosis of the current situation in Poland, taking into account unwanted discourses, unwelcomed subjects and unresolved problems. Melancholic Migrating Bodies offers the first systematic overview of Polandâ (TM)s literary and cultural environment after 1989 from the perspective of womenâ (TM)s writing. It critically surveys the various political and social transformations of this period through a close reading of the foremost Polish female novelists. In this original way, the book adopts a fresh perspective on some of the countryâ (TM)s key questions, such as Catholicism, nationalism, the patriotic ethos, history, romantic mythology and the problem of memory.