„Być, zapłonąć, nie zniknąć”. O widzialności i utracie podmiotowości w „Znikaniu” Izabeli Morskiej
“To Be, to Ignite, Not to Disappear”: Visibility and the Loss of Subjectivity in „Znikanie” by Izabela Morska

Summary/Abstract: The article offers an analysis of Znikanie: Proza jak zastrzyk w serce by Izabela Morska within the framework of contemporary research on literary representations of illness. This study addresses the need to extend existing interpretations of the novel, which have predominantly focused on its autopathographic dimension. It argues that the titular “disappearing” should be understood as a category that captures not only a somatic experience, but also a gradual loss of subjectivity at the social and institutional levels. The analysis draws on malady studies and disability studies, with particular attention to the critique of ableism and the social model of disability. It examines selected aspects of the novel, including the experience of pain and somatization, interactions with the medical system, exclusion from the academic sphere, the economic consequences of illness, and processes of identity transformation. The analysis shows that “disappearing” operates across multiple dimensions of the protagonist’s existence: the body, professional status, social relations, and symbolic visibility. Morska’s novel exposes mechanisms of institutional erasure while simultaneously indicating the potential for the reintegration of identity through narrative practices. The article contributes to research in medical humanities, disability studies, and twenty-first-century women’s writing.

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