Działalność wydawnicza oficyny Antoniego Alojzego Gąsiorowskiego

Author(s): Marta Małyska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2016

The article presents the character and activity of Antoni Alojzy Gąsiorowski, editor, publisher, bookseller, issuer and printer operating chiefly in Masuria. Born to a Polish family, initially acted to the benefit of Poland and national identity. Later on, due to economic and personal reasons, he changed his attitude and became a livid supporter of germanisation. Hefocused his publishing activity on books and journals issued both in Polish and German. Undoubtedly, his greatest editorial achievement was the "Kurek Mazurski", in German "Der masurische Hahn", issued at first in Szczytno, then in Jańsbork (now Pisz) as a result of moving the publishing house. Despite his actions, Gąsiorowski may be seen as an advocate of the Polish identity in Masuria; the works he published, though written in poor Polish, acted to the benefit of popularising the Polish language among local inhabitants of Masuria.

„Słowo »Żyd« było niewymawialne”. O mikrologii roślin i zwierząt jako perspektywie dla badań Zagłady. Z Aleksandrem Nawareckim rozmawiają Marta Tomczok i Beata Mytych‑Forajter

Author(s): Marta Tomczok,Beata Mytych-Forajter / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2017

Zagłada, ofiara i zwierzęta w myśli Elisabeth de Fontenay

Author(s): Mirosław Loba / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2017

The article aims at presenting the views of a French philosopher Elisabeth de Fontanay on the issue of proximity between the Shoah and the inhuman, industrial treatment of animals. The author not only explains the history of such a contextualisation of the problem, but also tackles the question of the meaning of a sacrifice, which is a term often used to define both the extermination of the Jews and the mass animal slaughter.

O nieludzkim „ludzkim” i „niezwierzęcym” zwierzęcym zachowaniu: z lektury wiersza Ludzie i hieny Frydzi Kiwatz

Author(s): Beata Przymuszała / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2017

The paper, based on an analysis of Frydzia Kiwatz’s poem included in Tango łez śpiewajcie muzy. Poetyckie dokumenty Holokaustu indicates the necessity of returning to the historical contexts which the works from the times of the Shoah are indebted to. Consequently, the boundary between human and inhuman, described in the poem, might be read differently depending on the approach one decides to adopt. This boundary, however, is possible to be rethought anew, since the poem deeply re‑reads the stereotypical division into what is significant for humans, and what – for animals.

Zwierzęce idylle. O Razglednicach Miklósa Radnótiego

Author(s): Kinga Piotrowiak-Junkiert / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2017

The article presents an interpretation of Miklós Radnóti’s famous poetic cycle, Razglednicák [Postcards] (1944), from the animal perspective. The situation of the poet – a Hungarian Jew and a Catholic, sent to forced labour and then to a death march – is presented in four short pieces, expressly referring to the idyllic aesthetics. The dominant elements of the poem’s landscape are profiles of animals. By means of the poem, a flock of sheep and an ox become live emblems of the human condition in two states: the idyllic, timeless continuance and the inevitable death, which brings biological exhaustion to an end. The sheep and the ox also represent different types of presence – the sheep seem to function in an intact scenery, almost perfectly resembling the poet’s previous pieces devoted to animals, in which the animal embodies the untouched world, coexists with the landscape, and is continuance without a name. In Radnóti, the animal is a subjectified creature that exists on an equal basis with the human.

Zasypia ryba. Autobiograficzne i zwierzęce niepokojenia w malarstwie Andrzeja Wróblewskiego

Author(s): Daria Nowicka / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2017

This article is an attempt to interpret the painting of Andrzej Wróblewski – the author of Rozstrzelania – as part of the interdisciplinary research. This is an interpretation of his painting – especially of his animal paintings – in the context of the poems of Tadeusz Różewicz, Jerzy Ficowski, and Tadeusz Śliwiak. In their poems, these authors have explored the problem of memory, the mutilation of humans and animals, but also the protection of nature and its primordial character. This combination of arts and literature can create a new methodology; it can contribute to new research on postwar painting in the context of animal studies and memory studies.

Cezura, ciągłość i mit Implikacje łączenia Holokaustu z historią niemieckiego kolonializmu

Author(s): Kitty Millet / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2017

„Spieszczenie monstrualności”? Kołysanka w cieniu Zagłady

Author(s): Andrzej Juchniewicz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2017

The paper attempts to demonstrate the changing awareness of literary genres among the authors of Jewish descent writing in Polish and Yiddish, on the example of poetic lullabies. It is argued that although the immense popularity of this genre – among both professionals and amateurs – stems from the particular historical context, it is also connected to the emotions the lullaby evokes (as it connotes the idyllic childhood, as well as the somatic proximity with the mother) and the lack of rigid rules. Moreover, the eponymous genre intertwines with the genre indicators derived from epicedium – that is, lament – in order to make the liminal experience possible to be articulated. In the lullabies written during the times of military occupation and the extermination of the Jews, the addressee happens to be a guarantee of the continuity of the lineage; the lullaby thus unfolds its own elegiac and consoling potentialities. The authors presented in this paper reconcile the idyllic tone with the testamentary one, whereas the lullaby itself with its semantic capacity turns out to be a universal genre.

Biada ci, narodzie‑morderco! Zemsta w wierszu Wej dir Jicchoka Kacenelsona

Author(s): Karolina Koprowska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2017

This paper investigates the conceptualisation of Jewish vengeance, as demonstrated in Jicchok Kacenelson’s Wej Dir, the poem written on the 31st of May 1942, in the Warsaw Ghetto. In the course of the reading presented, the concept of affective vengeance is introduced, that is, a figure situated between two radical forms of retaliation on the Nazi Germans present in the literary works of Jewish authors: the vengeance‑fantasy and the accomplished vengeance. The paper focuses on analysing three particular issues: the forms of vengeance (posthumous revenge of spirits and the dead, and the revenge of nature), its direct motivation, and the avenging subject with its inherent duality. This subject, as it is argued, on the one hand becomes the representative of the nation and the “avenger of blood,” while on the other – identifies itself with the nation, and turns into the collective subject.

Nieporadne jeszcze dźwięki. O materialności dziennika Rutki Laskier

Author(s): Anita Jasińska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2017

The author of the article endeavours to present the history of the diary of Rut “Rutka” Laskier, a Jew from Będzin, who died in Auschwitz II–Birkenau. Laskier, called the Polish Anne Frank, wrote her diary for several months in an inconsistent and irregular manner. The notebook survived the war, but the information about its discovery reached the local media in as late as 2006. Jasińska analyses the Notebook, carefully examining the issues discussed by the girl, the topics chosen by her, and the pieces of information – either described or meticulously omitted – directly concerning Christian and/or Jewish culture and tradition. The author of the article pays a lot of attention to the “materiality” of the diary, as Paweł Rodak names it. She describes the material, the medium, the writing tools, and the girl’s handwriting. Such a way of looking at the diary makes it possible to broaden the cognitive perspective and to provide interesting interpretations. Jasińska also examines the very publication of the diary and the changes accompanying it on the proofreading‑editing level. She wonders whether and how it influences the act of reading the text, the social reception of the diary entries, and the assessment and value of Rutka’s Notebook as a historical source.

Walizka z bibułkami. Edycja Paryża ze złota… Leo Lipskiego

Author(s): Hanna Gosk / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2017

This article is an account of the “adventure” of editing Leo Lipski’s texts, be it memoirs, and epistolary and poetic forms, which are stored in his “archive” in Tel Aviv, preserved and controlled by Łucja Gliksman, a long‑time friend of his. The material collected was eventually published by Świat Literacki as Paryż ze złota. Teksty rozproszone in 2002. The aforementioned “archive” has been stored in a worn‑out, small suitcase full of undated and nearly illegible texts typed many years before by means of the manifold paper – a faded yellowish one, or, to be precise, its snippets. Therefore, the whole task of wading through them and selecting those deserving greater attention was extremely difficult. Yet another obstacle was Łucja Gliksman herself who simultaneously allowed the editor to finish her work properly and was deciding upon erasing particular content in the book in an autocratic manner, based often on her private and intimate motivation. The article is concluded with a reflection upon the uneasy task of negotiating with the right‑holders of the dead writers’ works.

Refleksja o statusie miejsca‑po‑obozie na przykładzie krakowskiej Fabryki Kabli w perspektywie relacji Joanny Ringel

Author(s): Michał Wachuła / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2017

Referring to the theory of sites of memory and non‑sites of memory, the author of this text asks a question concerning the status of Kabelwerk – a forced labour sub‑camp located by the Cable Factory [in Polish: Fabryka Kabli] in Cracow. The researcher bases his reflections on one part of the account of Joanna Ringel – a former prisoner of this camp – which was written as a protocol of an interview. He pays attention to the character of this testimony, analysing it in the context of the term of orality. In the analytical part, the author cites the excerpts from this account and informs about the look of Kabelwerk, its living conditions, and everyday events in the camp.

„Oni szli do lasu, po prostu do lasu…” Zagłada Żydów w KL Auschwitz‑Birkenau we wspomnieniach Aliny Dąbrowskiej

Author(s): Lucyna Sadzikowska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2017

Zoosynteza, czyli mocny słaby podmiot. Anna Barcz: Realizm ekologiczny. Od ekokrytyki do zookrytyki w literaturze polskiej

Author(s): Piotr Krupiński / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2017

This article is a review of – or, to be more precise, an attempt to critically discuss – Anna Barcz’s monograph Realizm ekologiczny. Od ekokrytyki do zookrytyki w literaturze polskiej. This vast work is entirely focused on tracing ecocritical and pre‑ecocritical contexts in Polish literature, and thereby it offers the readers a new look at the canon of Polish modern literature. Yet, the value of Anna Barcz’s monograph lies in something more. This book successfully implants new directions of the literary studies (mainly from the Anglo‑Americanhumanities), showing the usefulness of ecocriticism and zoocriticism as the tools that help understand more fully not only texts of culture but also the surrounding world: the world within which the human “I” does not have to be the only source of experience.

Zagłada ogrodu – ogród Zagłady? Antony Lishak: Stars: A Story of Friendship, Courage and Small, Precious Victories

Author(s): Anna Staroniewska‑Wątróbska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2017

In her review, the author makes an attempt of an analysis of Antony Lishak’s novel – Stars… – from a post‑anthropocentric perspective. The book of a British writer, addressed to a young reader, is shown in the background of other literary and movie works inspired by the remarkable history of the Warsaw Zoo and its inhabitants during the Second World War, such as: Ludzie i zwierzęta by Antonina Żabińska, The Zookeeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman and a movie with the same title directed by Niki Caro, or Arka Czasu… by Marcin Szczygielski. Among these works is the autobiography of Antonina Żabińska, the wife of the director of the zoo, who on the pages of Ludzie i zwierzęta outlined the truly subjective portraits of animals, ahead of the theoretical concepts of ecophilosophers and ecocritics. By means of constructing parallel images of suffering (people in a ghetto and animals in the zoo) as well as the empathetic attitude of Stars’ child heroes, Antony Lishak seems to follow the path of Antonina Żabińska in his novel; however, the inconsistencies indicated by the author in the structure of narration cause the demands of posthumanism, surprisingly close to the child’s perspective, being unfulfilled. In a narrative project of consolation, the comfort is achieved only on the anthropocentric plane.

Emocje i konwencje – rzecz o narracjach ofiar Zagłady i ich dzieci Beata Przymuszała: Smugi Zagłady. Emocjonalne i konwencjonalne aspekty tekstów ofiar i ich dzieci

Author(s): Agnieszka Czyżak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2017

The review is devoted to a book Smugi Zagłady. Emocjonalne i konwencjonalne aspekty tekstów ofiar i ich dzieci, written by Beata Przymuszała. Trails of the Holocaust, mentioned in the title, evoke a blurred, unclear image that is permanently present even though it can at times go unnoticed for various reasons. Particular chapters present a variety of aspects and degrees of this presence. The author takes up the problem of the wounded Jewish identity, explains why Holocaust literature did not reject the conventional means of expression, and analyses various approaches to trauma. The interpretations draw attention to the issue of intense affective components of texts and the means which let the experiences be expressed.

Ściegi i fastrygi. Mirosław Tryczyk: Miasta śmierci. Sąsiedzkie pogromy Żydów

Author(s): Katarzyna Kuczyńska-Koschany / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2017

The purpose of this paper, a context‑oriented presentation of Mirosław Tryczyk Miasta śmierci. Sąsiedzkie pogromy Żydów, is twofold. Firstly, it endeavours to collect and classify various responses the reviewed book has provoked: reviews, polemics, and criticism. Secondly, it proposes its own reading granting Tryczyk with the authorial right to present his own, even if diverging, type of narration. Moreover, it includes the traces of the post‑Holocaust slips of the tongue, significant and eye‑opening themselves (“And I have fled from the porch to life” [thehomonym “życie” might mean both “rye” and “life,” although in different grammatical cases]). Finally, it refers to the cover and its significance, and the “excess” of death, repetitions, which deprive of hope and overwhelm the reader.

Kolonie terroru. Wolfgang Sofsky: Ustrój terroru: obóz koncentracyjny

Author(s): Agata Jankowska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2017

The review discusses the historically and sociologically significant work of a German scholar Wolfgang Sofsky. This is the first Polish translation of the book, which had a great influence on other thinkers tackling the questions of totalitarianisms, concentration camps, and Nazi genocide. While discussing the scope of issues undertaken by Sofsky, the author of the review focuses on the threads most often emphasised by the German scholar, such as: the organization of the social structure within the concentration camp, the relations between the authorities and the prisoners, or the functioning of the individual within the system Sofsky describes as absolute. The sociologist turns to the social structure of the camp, that is, the prison hierarchy constructed in such a way that reverses any social order. Sofsky sees in the camp a sui generis experiment conducted by the Nazis on the human and social tissues, as a result of which a deep change within the human and his/her condition occurred.The author pays attention to the organisation of time and space of the camp, which is discussed in detail by the German sociologist. What happened in the camp – according to Sofsky – was the characteristic reversal of social roles and interpersonal relations. The examples of the new order are, among others, the power granted to prisoner functionaries by the Nazis or work that was not a manufacturing process but only one of the tools of terror and physical destruction.

Tu mówi lager… Przeżywcy mają głos Agnieszka Dauksza: Klub Auschwitz i inne kluby. Rwane opowieści przeżywców

Author(s): Marcin Różański / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2017

Nazi Camp Speaking… is a review of Agnieszka Dauksza’s Klub Auschwitz i inne kluby. Rwane opowieści przeżywców. The book was published in Gdańsk in 2016. It stems from the interviews with ten former prisoners of Nazi German concentration camps. These conversations embrace a rather long time span, including the pre‑war times, then the period between 1939 and 1945, and finally present times. The reader is thus provided with the panoramic view on the character’s fates, who are being persistently dubbed as “sur‑vivors,”since they endured the reality of Nazi camps. Currently, these people form a dwindling and hermetic group, whose members struggle with their everyday lives and seek their place in the contemporary society, which – if one keeps in mind their experience of the wartime – is tremendously difficult.

„Próba całości” Sławomir Buryła: Wokół Zagłady. Szkice o literaturze Holokaustu

Author(s): Andrzej Juchniewicz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2017

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.