Scholarly Article
Postcatastrophic Re-Reading of Tadeusz Hołuj's Puste pole
Adamczak, Katarzyna
2017-09-21 · Poznańskie Studia Slawistyczne · Adam Mickiewicz University Poznan
Abstract
This article deals with the re-interpretation of Tadeusz Hołuj's drama Puste pole (1963; The Empty Field) and its theatrical staging by Józef Szajna in 1965. Based on the drama I want to demonstrate how the artists - who were both survivors of the concentration camp in Auschwitz - managed re-presenting the Holocaust despite the political situation and the accompanying anti-Semitic government campaign in Poland in the 1960s. The reception of the drama of then and nowadays shows how that re-presentation was once interpreted due to the political circumstances, which made the issue of the Holocaust and the Jews bannend from public life, language, and memory. Finally I explore how Hołuj's drama can be read today when we approach it via postcatastophic re-reading determined by after-knowledge, retrospection, and retroactivity.
Keywords
postcatastrophy, re-reading, Shoah, drama, staging, re-presentation, reception, communism
Citation Details
Poznańskie Studia Slawistyczne, pp. 17-28