Functions of a Fairy Tale in the Auschwitz Camp Memories of Zofia Posmysz
Functions of a Fairy Tale in the Auschwitz Camp Memories of Zofia Posmysz
Author(s): Katarzyna SmykSubject(s): Customs / Folklore, Short Story, WW II and following years (1940 - 1949), History of the Holocaust
Published by: Polskie Towarzystwo Ludoznawcze
Keywords: folk tale; magic tale; concentration camp; Birkenau; Auschwitz; functions of folklore;
Summary/Abstract: The article gives a multifaceted interpretation of the functions of a concentration camp fairy tale from the perspective of folklore studies (i.e. its socio-integrative, aesthetic, didactic/educational, compensatory/cathartic and trauma management functions) and literary studies (strategies of women’s writing about the Holocaust and the war, and the camp testimony). The author anal- yses the novel Wakacje nad Adriatykiem (1970) and an extended interview Królestwo za mgłą (2017) by Zofia Posmysz, an inmate of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Ravensbrück and Neustadt-Glewe, who stylised her camp memories as a traditional folk tale, thus commemorating the fairy tales told by her camp friend Zofia Jachimczak, who did not survive Auschwitz. The author comes to the conclusion that a concentration camp fairy tale seems to be a complete genre and a comprehensive structure of meaning that makes it possible to express the inexpressible.
Journal: Łódzkie Studia Etnograficzne
- Issue Year: 62/2023
- Issue No: 1
- Page Range: 67-80
- Page Count: 14
- Language: English