Category of the Grotesque in Descriptions of the Music from Concentration Camps. “Gry oświęcimskie” by Szymon Laks Cover Image

Kategoria groteski w opisach muzyki z obozów koncentracyjnych. „Gry oświęcimskie” Szymona Laksa
Category of the Grotesque in Descriptions of the Music from Concentration Camps. “Gry oświęcimskie” by Szymon Laks

Author(s): Bartosz Dąbrowski
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Psychology, Music, Studies of Literature, Comparative Study of Literature, Polish Literature, Psychoanalysis, History of the Holocaust, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: Szymon Laks; music in concentration camps; Holocaust; trauma; grotesque; parody

Summary/Abstract: The article presents the grotesque as an autobiographical strategy of talking about the experience of concentration camps. In his autobiographical testimony, Szymon Laks describes the music in Birkenau as the part of the Nazi system of exploitation of prisoners. In his memories, music in the concentration camp is deprived of humanistic values, and becomes a symbol of the violence, hierarchy and absurdity of the camp life. For Laks, the grotesque and self‑parody become the only means of speaking about the experience of the concentration camp. Laks chooses the literary tactics of inhuman accustoming, similar to the works of such writers as Tadeusz Borowski and Piotr Rawicz.

  • Issue Year: 2016
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 224-234
  • Page Count: 11
  • Language: Polish