Anxieties. Tadeusz Różewicz and the So-called Livestock

Abstract

Anxieties. Tadeusz Różewicz and the So‑called Livestock

Collating Tadeusz Różewicz’s poetry with Jacques Derrida’s critique of logocentrism and John D. Caputo’s so‑called poetics of obligation, this article ponders upon the ethical relation to non‑human animals – particularly livestock – in the aforementioned literary project. Although Różewicz’s volumes published early after the end of the war seem to drift towards negative anthropology, they tend to benefit from more modern interpretative codes, for instance Giorgio Agamben’s anthropological machine or Caputo’s poetics of obligation. With regard to the means of the latter one, it is argued that Różewicz’s poetry endeavours to rethink animal as the absolute Other, contributing to the ethical relation which has been previously restricted entirely to Human‑Other. Such poems as Walentynki, Świniobicie, Ucieczka świnek dwóch (z obozu zagłady – rzeźni), Buty i wiersze or Unde malum? confirm Różewicz’s sensitivity to animal suffering. Moreover, they often anticipate the ethical and philosophical debates upon the human/animal dyad, and their practical political and economic implications.

Key words: logocentrism, poetics of obligation, anthropological machine, non‑human animals, Tadeusz Różewicz, Jacques Derrida, John D. Caputo