(Extra‑) Ordinary Czajka. An Ecocritical Perspective in Izabela Czajka Stachowicz’s Narrations of the Shoah Cover Image

Czajka (nad)zwyczajna. Perspektywa ekokrytyczna w narracjach o Zagładzie Izabeli Czajki Stachowicz
(Extra‑) Ordinary Czajka. An Ecocritical Perspective in Izabela Czajka Stachowicz’s Narrations of the Shoah

Author(s): Marta Tomczok
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Philology, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: Shoah; animals; Polish People’s Republic (PRL); stereotypes; female writing

Summary/Abstract: In the article, the author attempts to prove how valuable a change of methodology can be when it comes to war and Shoah literature of Izabela Czajka Stachowicz. Instead of a reading focused on the writer as a celebrity who shows off and is permeated with sexism, the author proposes the ecocritical and posthumanist reading in its broad understanding, grounded primarily upon the works of Rosi Braidotti. Basing on this perspective, the author discusses the diary entitled Ocalił mnie kowal, situating it against the background of Czajka’s autobiographical prose as well as numerous other war diaries and memoirs of the Jews. Czajka’s writings above all embrace plants and animals with figurative care, but at the same these texts they do not lack realistic narration, devoted to the examples of agreements that the writer hiding on the “Aryan side” has made with homeless or enslaved hens, dogs, and cats.

  • Issue Year: 2017
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 103-120
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: Polish