Zofii Nałkowskiej „upodobanie do myszy” Z dziejów pewnego motywu*
Zofia Nałkowska’s “soft spot for mice” The History of a Motif

Author(s): Piotr Krupiński
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: Nałkowska’s writing; Animal symbolism (mice as a literary motif); Animal studies; Polish literature and the Holocaust
Summary/Abstract: The subject of the proposed study are the writings of Zofia Nałkowska. The author of the article selects only one motif out of the vast body of work written by this outstanding modernist – those scenes which present mice in various configurations – and attempts to discuss the whole oeuvre of Nałkowska’s through the prism of the mouse motif. The objective of this analysis, inspired primarily by New Humanism and animal studies, is to demonstrate that animal symbolism constitutes a secret “code” for Nałkowska. Through this motif, the novelist presents what is human in the categories of what is animalistic. The particular space of human‑animal connection, according to Nałkowska, is pain and fear of death.

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