Mary's body radiating: on the art of living, though closer to dying Cover Image

Promieniujące ciało Marii - o sztuce życia, choć bliżej śmierci
Mary's body radiating: on the art of living, though closer to dying

Author(s): Anna Barcz
Subject(s): Cultural Essay, Political Essay, Societal Essay
Published by: Instytut Nauk o Kulturze i Studiów Interdyscyplinarnych - Wydział Filologiczny - Uniwersytet Śląski
Keywords: Biography; sexuality; transgression; history of science; chemistry; laboratory

Summary/Abstract: In the article life and work of Maria Skłodowska-Curie is presented through the sources of her physical vulnerability and her strength. Her biography is a history of her body that belonged to the scholar, woman, mother and lover: strong but suffering, experiencing pleasure and humiliation. Her life is thus seen from the perspective of its wounds, mutilation, chronic disease that cannot be separate from its intellectual part. The desire to reach the mystery of nature, discover its treasures, was synonymous with the need to sacrifice the body, abandon it in order to get where the laws of physics disappear, beyond materiality. Self-destruction, in this case a kind of spiritual transgression, was not equal with the denial of sexuality, on the contrary - it was the main source of scientific inspiration.

  • Issue Year: 2013
  • Issue No: 20-21
  • Page Range: 235-248
  • Page Count: 14
  • Language: Polish