Geografia i topografia "Ziemi Nod" Radosława Kobierskiego

Abstract

The article constitutes an attempt at analysing the function of creation of space in Radosław Kobierski's (b. 1971) postmodern novel Ziemia Nod (Warszawa 2010). The novel recounts the fates of several dozen characters, Poles and Jews, between the interwar period and the first few years of the Polish People’s Republic, who all inhabit the topography of Tarnów as reconstructed by Kobierski in literature with an antiquarian exactness, care, and precision. The pre-war space of the city is a textual sign defining social, religious and/or ethnic belonging of individual characters as well as their identity. During the war and after its conclusion the abovementioned space undergoes disintegration, and Tarnów becomes a figure of the Holocaust, death and irreparable loss.