Pamięć o zagładzie w twórczości Magdaleny Tulli
Remembrance of the Holocaust in the prose of Magdalena Tulli

Author(s): Natalia Teklik
Subject(s): History of the Holocaust, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: Holocaust; Tulli; remembrance; postmemory; trauma
Summary/Abstract: The topic of the Holocaust and its representation is particularly important in contemporary literary and cultural discourse. The theme of my work is Holocaust remembrance as reflected in the prose of Magdalena Tulli. The main research objectives were to draw attention to the importance of literature, which often becomes a medium of memory, but also to focus on the theme of the Holocaust as a personal and intimate experience, which, especially in the case of Tulli’s prose, may be related not only to history and politics but above all to inter-generational trauma. The main character of the Italian Stilettos and Noise belongs to the post-memory generation – thus the camp experiences are not limited only to the narrative of survivors but they become the core component of trauma transmitted across generations. The girl’s mother passes on to her daughter the whole emotional baggage she cannot cope with on her own, and the girl becomes painfully aware that the price for trying to escape from the past is the distance which separates her from her mother. The main research method was the analysis of Magdalena Tulli’s novels from the perspective of Holocaust remembrance, trauma and family relations as well as in the light of literary criticism, which brings in an important theoretical element. The most important conclusion of the research, and also the subject of this work, is the observation that memory and (non)memory of the Holocaust in Tulli’s work concern first of all human drama and events of an individual nature; as a result we are left with the impression that history perceived as a general experience should never be allowed to overshadow subjectivity.

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