Biała plama i farby wodne
White Stain and Water Paints

Summary/Abstract: The sketch on the book by Lidia Ostałowska focuses on the subject matter connected with the fate of Gypsies in World War II in a wider context. The author discusses the conditions of silence regarding this matter, resulting not only from the trauma of survivors, as is the case with the Holocaust, but also from Romani cultural norms. Therefore, a significant issue are the methods of description of this experience, of speaking despite the silence. According to the author, Farby wodne shows that the discourse on genocide can take on the form of myth and fairytale. However, another significant problem is use of the narrative on the Destruction for political purposes and for profits. This is connected with the problem of authorities controlling the shape of memory. The author asks a question on limits, tasks and qualifications of art in an extreme situation – in view of mass murder. Thus, he also takes up the ethical subject matter suggested by Ostałowska. In the final part, Roland Barthes’s understanding of myth is evoked, which allows the author to read Farby wodne as a pretext for a discussion on theft of language, consisting in transformation of Holocaust into a secondary semantic system, a meta-language of a kind.

• Details
• Contents