“It is not important whether he hates or not. Muselmänner disturbed him”– a Category of Disturbance in the Narrations about a Muselmann in the Literature of the Shoah Cover Image

„Nie chodzi o to, czy nienawidzi czy nie. Muzułmanie mu przeszkadzali” – kategoria zakłócenia w narracjach o muzułmanie w literaturze Szoa
“It is not important whether he hates or not. Muselmänner disturbed him”– a Category of Disturbance in the Narrations about a Muselmann in the Literature of the Shoah

Author(s): Dennis Bock
Subject(s): History, Language and Literature Studies, Jewish studies, Studies of Literature, Polish Literature, Philology, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Poznańskie Studia Polonistyczne
Keywords: Muselmann; disturbance; competitive narrations; social history

Summary/Abstract: In the literary recollections of camp survivors the figure of the Muselmann is a recurring motif. The author puts forward a thesis about the existence of a dominating, prototypical narration about a Muselmann, which occurs not only in literary texts but also in scholarly studies. The questioning of the exemplary forms of depicting a Muselmann may lead to irritation and evoke in readers the feeling of “disturbance”. The re-enactment of such disturbances possesses a hidden analytical potential, as it reveals routinized and partly problematic cultural structures of reception and cquisition apparent especially in the context of post-catastrophic narrations and remembrance of the Shoah.

  • Issue Year: 2015
  • Issue No: 25
  • Page Range: 137-163
  • Page Count: 28
  • Language: Polish