Delayed Answer? Literary Counter-Narratives of the Village and the Holocaust Cover Image

Spóźniona odpowiedź? Literackie kontrnarracje o wsi i Zagładzie
Delayed Answer? Literary Counter-Narratives of the Village and the Holocaust

Author(s): Karolina Koprowska
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Keywords: Zagłada; druga wojna światowa; wieś; Żydzi; chłopi; postronni; bystanders; Holocaust; World War II; village; Jews; peasants; outsiders

Summary/Abstract: The subject of the article are conceptualisations of the experiences of Holocaust, war and occupation (from the Polish perspective) as well as Polish-Jewish (and peasant-Jewish) relationships that were formed in the context of violence that were formulated as a part of the most recent village literature. Seemingly telling is the fact that more and more publications appearing on the Polish book market discuss the issue of the village, amongst which are works where the Holocaust happening on the „outskirts” plays a central role. Therefore the starting point for the considerations presented in the article is the question about the possible causes of the current turn towards the village being embroiled in the Holocaust. The author places this literary phenomenon in the context of current historical research concerning the so-called third wave of the Holocaust and concentrates on the analysis of two books: Sońka by Ignacy Karpowicz and A Little Annihilation by Anna Janko which seem to be particularly representative for the strategies of formulating literary responses to the findings of the historians.

  • Issue Year: 17/2020
  • Issue No: 4
  • Page Range: 423-440
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: Polish
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