Family Anthropology. Ksiądz Kaingba, mój dziadek by Ewa Kraskowska as an Autoethnography Not Only Literary Cover Image

Antropologia rodzinna. Ksiądz Kaingba, mój dziadek Ewy Kraskowskiej jako autoetnografia nie tylko literacka
Family Anthropology. Ksiądz Kaingba, mój dziadek by Ewa Kraskowska as an Autoethnography Not Only Literary

Author(s): Anna Zatora, Jarosław Płuciennik
Subject(s): Polish Literature, Culture and social structure , Family and social welfare, Sociology of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Szczecińskiego
Keywords: family anthropology; autoethnography; cultural studies; familiology; family saga;

Summary/Abstract: This paper explores the ways in which storytelling and the discovery of private history are con- structed in the (auto)family biography Ksiądz Kaingba, mój dziadek by Ewa Kraskowska (2021) and the accompanying research blog “Kaingba” (2015–2021). We pose the thesis that the ana- lysed material constitutes a form of autoethnography, a research-writing practice, combiningfeatures of literary creation, reporter’s technique, work with archives, anthropological research and self-analysis. The narrative on the Rev. Kaingba and his family is part of the resurgence of family stories visible in the humanities today, which often fall on the borderline between per- sonal documentary and fictional literature. The methods we used belong primarily to cultural research methodologies – transmedial storytelling, cultural anthropology and cultural genre stud- ies. An analysis of both the literary material and tracing the process of Ewa Kraskowska’s work on the book makes it possible to include Ksiądz Kaingba into the field of autoethnographic texts in several dimensions: literary strategy, creative practice and autocreation, personal anthropology and family (auto)ethnography, and a form of auto-therapy. In Kraskowska’s work, family micro- history is combined with History and the personal experience of the author – researcher, scientist, writer, woman, daughter and granddaughter. Ewa Kraskowska’s family history creates an amalgam of autoethnography, autobiography, confession, family saga and online genealogy blog.

  • Issue Year: 21/2023
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 125-145
  • Page Count: 21
  • Language: Polish