The exile's high-maintenance identity

This paper offers a highly personal narrative on national identity as a fragile, labor-intensive construct shaped by exile, coercion, and moral resistance. Drawing on the autobiographical writings of the author's father, Zygmunt Bauman, and her mother, Janina Bauman, the essay traces the father's lifelong struggle with national belonging across three geopolitical contexts: postwar Poland, Israel after the Six-Day War of 1967, and ultimately England. Framed by a theoretical view of identity as a constellation of socially negotiated stories, the analysis highlights the persistent dissonance between first-person self-identification and third-person ascription imposed by collectives. Through this account, the author argues that national identity, far from being effortless or benign, often demands conformity at the expense of moral integrity, and that opting out of belonging may serve as an ethical response to the divisive logic inherent in nationalism.