„Próba całości” Sławomir Buryła: Wokół Zagłady. Szkice o literaturze Holokaustu
“A Try for Completeness”. Sławomir Buryła: Wokół Zagłady. Szkice o literaturze Holokaustu

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this review is to discuss the issues presented in Sławomir Buryła’s book, which are selected and clustered with regard to the diachronic and biographical perspectives, and originate in the readings of novels which have been artistically discredited, forgotten, and underrated. The review praises the meticulous register of sources used and the micrological approach adopted in the second part of the work, which also aims at reconstructing the biographies of the authors not included in the canon of Holocaust literature. The compendium of literary representations of the Shoah, which Buryła establishes in his book, indicates the incapacity of creating unconventional plots which – supported by the idiom of the author – would have allowed writers to articulate accurate judgements about the reality of the Holocaust, diverging from the accepted ethical norms. Moreover, the review emphasises the influence of poet(h)ics on the critical readings of both non‑fiction and fiction. Buryła, disputing the decisions of the authors related to the “forbidden representation,” points to the hegemony of popular culture which devalues the experience of the Shoah and makes the reflection upon marginality, liminality, and the ambivalent ethical choices impossible. Instead, he acknowledges the literary motifs derived from the works beyond mainstream and those which reside on the very limits of the canon: the narcissist and tasteless narrations treating the Holocaust as a pretext and a secondary issue. Finally, the review also notes the synthetic manner in which Buryła aims at classifying the threads and motifs of the Shoah, and establishing its undistorted, monumental, and complete image.

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