Auschwitz as the Metaphor for Everything. Wojciech Albiński’s <i>Oświęcimki</i>

Authors

  • Joanna Nazimek Wydział Filologiczny, Uniwersytet Pedagogiczny im. Komisji Edukacji Narodowej w Krakowie

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31261/NoZ.2016.02.18

Abstract

Auschwitz as the Metaphor for Everything. Wojciech Albiński’s Oświęcimki

The object of analysis in this article is the short prose collection entitled Oświęcimki (2014). Wojciech Albiński’s pieces reveal how strongly war and Holocaust clichés are rooted in the
dictionary, gestures and collective bodily memory of contemporary generations. These texts can be also read as the critiques of the pop‑cultural infantilisation of the Shoah and the signs of tiredness due to the excess of traumatising testimonies on the events of World War II. As the author endeavours to demonstrate, Albiński’s texts reveal the empathetic unease and the real needs of approaching the past, understanding it, and searching for sense in it. Oświęcimki are analysed in the context of the issues connected with the functioning of the Holocaust in the permanently changing collective memory.

Key words: Oświęcimki by Wojciech Albiński, Holocaust, Auschwitz, collective memory, post-memory, post‑traumatic culture

Published

2019-12-29

How to Cite

Nazimek, J. (2019). Auschwitz as the Metaphor for Everything. Wojciech Albiński’s <i>Oświęcimki</i>. Narracje O Zagładzie [Narrations of the Shoah], (2), 283–294. https://doi.org/10.31261/NoZ.2016.02.18