“So what?” Bożena Keff, Magda Szcześniak, Tomasz Tomasik & Błażej Warkocki in a conversation with Anna Zawadzka Cover Image

„No i co z tego”. O dyskusji wokół "Kamieni na szaniec" Aleksandra Kamińskiego z Bożeną Keff, Magdą Szcześniak, Tomaszem Tomasikiem i Błażejem Warkockim rozmawia Anna Zawadzka
“So what?” Bożena Keff, Magda Szcześniak, Tomasz Tomasik & Błażej Warkocki in a conversation with Anna Zawadzka

Author(s): Anna Zawadzka
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Polish Literature
Published by: Instytut Slawistyki Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: Kamienie na szaniec (Stones on the barricades); Elżbieta Janicka; homophobia; homosocial relations; patriotism

Summary/Abstract: In April 2013, the Polish Press Agency published an article in which Elżbieta Janicka proposed a new interpretations of Stones on the barricades. She claimed i.a.: ”Since we are deliberating, placed in a ho-mophobic culture, where questioning someone’s heterosexual orientation is not an observation but a de­lation, I would compare Zośka and Rudy to Achilles and Patroclus, a pair of legendary warriors. […] I think that this is one of the most beautiful texts about love knowing no limits, whereas all we know about the main characters’ relations testifies to the unheard power and depth of this feeling”. Those words caused an avalanche of reactions, starting from polemics with Janicka or libels on her to violence threats against the scholar. In this conversation, Bożena Keff, Magda Szcześniak, Tomasz Tomasik, Błażej Warkocki and Anna Zawadzka are discussing Janicka’s proposition (developed in her book Festung Warschau, published prior to the quoted text) to interpret Stones on the barricades as a text also on a romantic relationship between two men. They analyse social and political causes of the “scandal”, induced by the Polish mainstream media together with a part of the Polish academic milieu. This conversation took place in May 2013.

  • Issue Year: 2015
  • Issue No: 3-4
  • Page Range: 23-41
  • Page Count: 19
  • Language: Polish