Lebensraum i przestrzeń abjectu. O Białym kamieniu Anny Boleckiej

Abstract

The article analyzes the category of literary space which is understood here rather as a metaphor of experiencing identity, memory and postmemory than as a spatial term sensu stricto. The author reflects on the novel by Anna Bolecka, Biały kamień [White stone], and more specifically on the hidden tropes of the blurred and denied past memories of Jewish genealogical component of today’s Polishness. The reading of the novel’s poetics demonstrates the importance of female characters that, apart from their function in the plot construction, figuratively signify the lost Jewish mother of today’s, mostly Catholic, Poland. In addition, following the thinking of Julia Kristeva, of special significance are the images of abject art.