Photography in the First Degree, or the Impossibility of Returning to the Roots. Taking the Example of Mercedes-Benz by Paweł Huelle Cover Image
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Fotografia pierwszego stopnia – o niemożliwości powrotu do źródła. Na przykładzie Mercedesa-Benza Pawła Huellego
Photography in the First Degree, or the Impossibility of Returning to the Roots. Taking the Example of Mercedes-Benz by Paweł Huelle

Author(s): Olga Osińska
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Studies of Literature, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Photography; autobiography; fiction; referentiality; irony; mise en abyme; narrative; cyclicality; postmemory; photographiness

Summary/Abstract: The article compares two memoirs about family’s histories from 2001: In the Gardenof Memory by Joanna Olczak-Ronikier and Mercedes-Benz by Paweł Huelle, in whichphotographs play an important role: In the Ggarden of Mmemory by Joanna Olczak-Ronikierand Mercedes-Benz by Paweł Huelle. While in the former, more old-fashioned family’sbiography, the function of photos is to prove the trustworthiness (referentiality) of thenarrative, in the latter, which is rather an autofictional novel, reading photos becomesa starting point for blurring non-fiction biography with fictional Dichtung. The aim ofthe study on Mercedes-Benz’study carried out by the author of this article is to outline theconcept of the photography in the first degree. That is also why the mise en abyme andthe postmemory are contextually recalled.

  • Issue Year: 467/2019
  • Issue No: 4
  • Page Range: 63-76
  • Page Count: 14
  • Language: Polish