Title:

Medicine in the Service of Nasizm and other Silesian Stories – Reconstructing “Memory Shot Through with Holes” in Anna Dziewit-Meller’s Góra Tajget

Group publication title:

Piotrkowskie Zeszyty Historyczne

Creator:

Gawron, Agnieszka

Keywords:

empty spaces in memory ; body as a medium of postmemory ; literature and Nazi medicine ; postmemorial discourse

Abstract:

The article discusses the literary reconstruction of the “memory shot through with holes” (H. Raczymow) in Anna Dziewit-Meller’s Góra Tajget (“Mount Taygetus”). The author analyses how this moral treatise set against the backdrop of the tale about three generations of a Silesian family as well as German eugenic operations fills the empty spaces in history and memory. In this process, the category of the body plays a unique role – one that is su¬pervised by Nazi medicine, as well that which serves as a medium of what has been repressed from consciousness. Another key element of the text is the mul¬tiplied figure of the child, which binds together all the stories and accentuates the role of autobiographical factors in postmemorial discourse. Finally, the au¬thor examines how the anomalies of the discourse present in the book destroy the comfort of reading, and the literature, presented in an ethical perspective, becomes one of the most important discourses on responsibility, ethics (also medical) and human condition.

Place of publishing:

Piotrków Trybunalski

Physical description:

S. 41-60

ISSN:

2449-738X

Publisher:

Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jana Kochanowskiego. Filia w Piotrkowie Trybunalskim

Date issued:

2021

Identifier:

doi:10.25951/4347

Language:

angielski

Is part of:

Piotrkowskie Zeszyty Historyczne

Has part:

T. 22, z. 1

Type:

tekst

Format:

application/pdf