Medicine in the Service of Nazism and other Silesian Stories – Reconstructing “Memory Shot Through with Holes” in Anna Dziewit-Meller’s Góra Tajget
Medicine in the Service of Nazism and other Silesian Stories – Reconstructing “Memory Shot Through with Holes” in Anna Dziewit-Meller’s Góra Tajget

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses the literary reconstruction of the “memory shot through with holes” (H. Raczymow) in Anna Dziewit-Meller’s Góra Tajget (Mount Taygetus). The author analyses how this moral treatise set against the backdrop of the tale about three generations of a Silesian family as well as German eugenic operations fills the empty spaces in history and memory. In this process, the category of the body plays a unique role – one that is supervised by Nazi medicine, as well that which serves as a medium of what has been repressed from consciousness. Another key element of the text is the multiplied figure of the child, which binds together all the stories and accentuates the role of autobiographical factors in postmemorial discourse. Finally, the author examines how the anomalies of the discourse present in the book destroy the comfort of reading, and the literature, presented in an ethical perspective, becomes one of the most important discourses on responsibility, ethics (also medical) and human condition.

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