Spectres and bones. Pandemic reading of „The bones you carry in your pocket” by Łukasz Barys Cover Image

Widma i kości. Pandemiczna lektura „Kości, które nosisz w kieszeni” Łukasza Barysa
Spectres and bones. Pandemic reading of „The bones you carry in your pocket” by Łukasz Barys

Author(s): Mateusz Adam Michalski
Subject(s): Polish Literature, Health and medicine and law
Published by: Wydział Filologiczny Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego
Keywords: pandemic; literary space; spectre; postmemory; trauma; silence;

Summary/Abstract: This article presents a pandemic interpretation of Łukasz Barys 2021 debut, The bones you carry in your pocket. It aims to analyze the impact of the virus as a „spectrum” (Derrida) on the life of the individual and to look at the „assamblage” (Žižek) effect of the pandemic. It encompasses the „human and the non-human” (Žižek), bringing together a constellation of „postmemory” (Hirsh) spectres, traumas, bones, death and past that begins to dominate reality. The narrative is thus the testimony of an individual living in a world of blight. However, it is a latent and silent testimony. It can be found in the descriptions underlined between family traumas and the grime of everyday life, in which death, love and illness are constantly mixed together.

  • Issue Year: 2022
  • Issue No: 14
  • Page Range: 96-108
  • Page Count: 13
  • Language: Polish