Dying and death at war - concentration zone: the place of (‘‘special’’) dying
Dying and death at war - concentration zone: the place of (‘‘special’’) dying
Author(s): Manca ErzetičSubject(s): History
Published by: Editura Mega Print SRL
Keywords: death; dying; camp; crematorium; Boris Pahor
Summary/Abstract: The question about what has been left by the past in the space, that we can consume or not in the 21st century is actually fiction in people’s mind. There is nothing left to remember, even memories on concentrations are nowadays like monument to those, who must live with that memories every day. Cultural history of death in the period of 18th-21st century had many ‘’special’’ places in war time, where people died in concentration zone. For rest of others who had “lucky” and have no experiences like that, is this something that could represent a fiction. But in reality it is far away from fiction. The history is regresus infinitum. Terror(ism) exists, lives in daily life and consist a part of daily news. “This part” is often described in the books, mostly by author experience. Terrorism in literature can be described as sexual terror, gender terror, nation terror etc. One of them is also terror(ism) at concentration camps, written by author’s memories. There is no time that could be called dogma, because we do not know the answer to the question how is life given (or not) to somebody and there is no key to resolve this mystery. Also we can’t judge to whom life belongs and who doesn’t deserved to live. McHale’s concepts of theory are putting questions into field of metafiction and postmodernism, but there are concepts about ontological insecurity in novels, written by an author who can understand the military zones and concentration camps. We can’t say that there is any meaning of this understanding. (We can’t say that this is a meaningful understanding). Meaning of non-sense, unreasonable facts which have been done during the Second World War and also in the nineties in the Balkans to the innocent people, are placed in time, when the “great stories” already have been told and when the ontological insecurity is not a new object of discussions in the field of philosophers. Nowadays, the so-called “great stories” can’t be re-told with the same effects. But there is the question, where and when we lost or left the spatial and temporal alternatives. The literature of the world known Slovenian author - Boris Pahor can give one point of the view with his novels, written mostly from his experience in the concentration camps, ghettos, occupied territories, frontiers in Africa, problems with passing borders etc., and his critical, objective and subjective point of view on the problematical relations, made by people. My research will be based on analyzing his literature, which gives, in some point of view, the answers to McHale’s theory, and makes comparative (open) conclusions. Comparative literature can show the line very clearly (and with that also the answer to McHale’s and Bataille’s theory) with Pahor’s character(s) (i.e.: the individual men, everymen nowadays), which show that not human nor zones aren’t changed more than sixty years later. Today we almost can’t distinguish fiction from reality, because most of the things which were fiction in the past
Journal: Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Historica
- Issue Year: 15/2011
- Issue No: Special
- Page Range: 229-238
- Page Count: 10
- Language: English
- Content File-PDF