Record and the Unspeakable. Silence and Despair in Zofia Nałkowska’s Diaries Cover Image

Zapis i niewypowiedziane. Milczenie i rozpacz w Dziennikach Zofii Nałkowskiej
Record and the Unspeakable. Silence and Despair in Zofia Nałkowska’s Diaries

Author(s): Anna Foltyniak
Subject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Instytut Badań Literackich Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: Zofia Nałkowska; Contemporary Polish Literature; Records of Trauma; Autobiography.

Summary/Abstract: This essay proposes a reading of Zofia Nałkowska’s Dzienniki [‘Diaries’], focusing on moments where the author signals her incapacity to write, in connection with appearance in her biography of certain difficult painful experiences; of traumatic experiences which not infrequently get elaborated in the narrative course only some time afterwards. Those moments of ‘non-writing’ are essential elements in the shaping of an autobiographic story and prove that silence-keeping is an indispensable part of the subject’s self-narration.

  • Issue Year: 2008
  • Issue No: 6
  • Page Range: 145-154
  • Page Count: 10
  • Language: Polish