A story for children versus a story for adults Two literary scenes of General Curfew in the Łódź ghetto Cover Image
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Opowieść dla dzieci a opowieść dla dorosłych Dwie literackie odsłony Wielkiej Szpery w łódzkim getcie
A story for children versus a story for adults Two literary scenes of General Curfew in the Łódź ghetto

Author(s): Hanna Dymel‑Trzebiatowska
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: Holocaust; postmemory; children’s literature;ghetto;
Summary/Abstract: The aim of the article is to compare and contrast two ways of creating a literary story about the historical events of the ghetto in Łódź on July 4th 1942. Allgemeine Gehsperre (General Curfew) was one of the most tragic moments in the history of the Holocaust, but though it has been narrated many times it still returns in new versions, triggering reflections concerning Marianne Hirsch’s concept of postmemory. The analyzed texts have been written within the latest years, and they reconstruct the same chronotope even if they differ in many aspects — i.e. genre, target group and volume. The first, Biedni ludzie z miasta Łodzi (2011) by Steve Sem-Sandberg, is a Swedish novel for adults, while the other, Bezsenność Jutki by Dorota Combrzyńska-Nogala (2014), is a Polish illustrated book for children. The texts are analyzed with narratological tools, and the conclusions about the discourse differences determined by the implicit reader refer to Lydia Kokkola’s research presented in the article entitled Representing the Holocaust in Children’s Literature (2003).

  • Page Range: 173-186
  • Page Count: 14
  • Publication Year: 2018
  • Language: Polish