AGATA FIRLEJ, dr.hab., comparatist, literary scholar, assistant professor in the Sub-department of West Slavic Languages and Literatures of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. Main interests: representation of the Holocaust in the Czech and Polish theatre, issues related to the Czech drama and contemporary literature, literary translation. Recently published books: Nieobecność. Ujęcia Szoa w czeskiej dramaturgii (2016); Czarny kruk. O Janie Skácelu i jego poezji (Poznań 2010); chosen articles: In matters of taste, there can be disputes. Elements of Camp in Fráňa Šrámek’s Play Léto, „Bohemistyka” t. XIII, nr 2; What Was Exactly Katerina’s Gesture?, [in:] The Aspects of Genres in the Holocaust Literatures in Central Europe/Die Gattungsaspekte der Holocaustliteratur in Mitteleuropa, Praha 2015; Humour and Irony as Categories of Aestheticization of Shoah Narration (Using the Example of Arnošt Goldflam’s Play „Doma u Hitlerů“), [in:] Der Holocaust in den mitteleuropäischen Literaturen und Kulturen: Probleme der Poetisierung und Ästhetisierung, Stuttgart 2016.
The book presents various ways of the representation of the Holocaust in the Czech drama and thea... more The book presents various ways of the representation of the Holocaust in the Czech drama and theatre on comparatistic (literary, historical, sociological, theatrical) background of phenomena belonging not only to the Czech, but also to the Polish and, wider, Central European culture, in the universalizing perspective. In terms of methodology this dissertation owes a lot to the tools developed by Jacques Lacan, whose poststructuralist concepts, derived from psychiatry, affecting the world wide humanities seem to be particularly useful in the field of literary theory after the Holocaust. There are the phenomena of absence and emptiness entered into its essence, which describe properly the crux of the postwar experience; it also includes constant reference to the myth and to narrative, myth-creating activity, however some concepts and terms taken by Lacan-such as trauma, memory, aprés coup, juissance – are often redefined in this work as well as the methodology itself, which is often just a starting point for some transformations and modifications forced by the topic of the research. The construction of the book-as the nomenclature of its parts betrays-refers to the structure of the ancient Greek tragedy; this innovative procedure is intended not only for applying the Weberian concept of "theatricality of the medium", but it also indicates that after the Holocaust almost all categories of the ancient model, productive before in the field of culture and identity, are reinterpreted, if not even annihilated. The new after-Holocaust tragedy does not contain the catharsis anymore as well as there is no place for the appearance of Deus ex machina, but it becomes clear that the category of fate is sometimes constructed by humans against humans: this recognition is one of the results of the present drama analyses. Concentrated and cyclical time also gains new meaning in Auschwitz. The subjects of detailed studies are the works of Czech authors who are entered into the structure of the book as: protagonistes, the first actor-a survivor of the Holocaust; deuteragonistes, the second actor-the representative of the second generation of survivors; and tritagonistes, the third actor-the witness, who "looked at empty neighbouring windows". This way-in the Lacanian spirit – the net of sociological and psychological relations, which formed the basis of my choice, is cast on the literary study method; extracted three groups coexisting in postwar Czechoslovakia (survivors, their children and non-Jewish "neighbors")
Szesnasty numer „Poznanskich Studiow Slawistycznych” dotyczy problemu jednostkowej pamieci histor... more Szesnasty numer „Poznanskich Studiow Slawistycznych” dotyczy problemu jednostkowej pamieci historycznej i kulturowej oraz jej reprezentacji wobec kolektywnego zapominania i odpominania . Na obszarze Slowianszczyzny i Balkanow manipulowanie pamiecią zbiorową stanowi trwaly modus zmagania sie z historią. Odpominane/odpamietywane indywidualne narracje tzw. slabych bohaterow funkcjonują jako „przeciw-historia” (wedlug Michela Foucaulta), alternatywna reprezentacja przeszlości, a w pewnych warunkach takze jako ruch oporu wobec wladzy. W posttraumatycznej historii Europy powtarzalnym mechanizmem jest rowniez wyparcie powracające w sztuce w postaci fantazmatow (teza Jacquesʼa Lacana), ktore stanowią dla zbiorowości źrodlo nieoczywistego poznania – jak anamneza.
Agata FIRLEJ Adam Mickiewicz University (Poznan) Child-Lined: Hrabal’s Immature Characters This e... more Agata FIRLEJ Adam Mickiewicz University (Poznan) Child-Lined: Hrabal’s Immature Characters This essay deals with the category of ‘immaturity’ in Bohumil Hrabal’s prose works, as juxtaposed with the corresponding aspect in the philosophy and artistic practice of Witold Gombrowicz. ‘Immature’ characters of the Czech author’s novels – including, among others: Johnny Child from I Served the King of England; Mr. Kakra and Mr. Leli from Snowdrops Festival; Milos Pipka, grandpa Lukas and Mr. Smacker from Closely Watched Trains – envy the mature characters, much in the manner inhabitants of central-European countries envy some ‘older’ nations. These characters usually strive for simulating to their longed-for model but eventually start to understand that one ‘ought to feel s/he is a great person’. Immaturity is a category which – in Hrabal’s concept, similar in this respect to Gombrowicz’s – a counterbalance to communistic enslavement of minds, immaturity is freedom from any convention, coe...
Kolař’s plays Chleb nas vezdejsi and Mor v Athenach, written at the turn of the fifties and the s... more Kolař’s plays Chleb nas vezdejsi and Mor v Athenach, written at the turn of the fifties and the sixties, are the examples of aestheticization of testimonies and other texts about the Shoah. Kolař’s creative path is in a way pars pro toto of artistic and literary search of many authors reacting to the experience of Shoah and to many texts describing this hecatomb. Doubt in the previous aesthetics and in the polyphonic load of words is one of the most common experiences in the second half of the 20th century – until now. The author activates memory or cultural connotations of receiver and by eliminating a factual layer that could became a psychological safety valve that distracts, focuses a viewer (reader) on the most important and by it the most difficult to bear: to the event itself.
The book presents various ways of the representation of the Holocaust in the Czech drama and thea... more The book presents various ways of the representation of the Holocaust in the Czech drama and theatre on comparatistic (literary, historical, sociological, theatrical) background of phenomena belonging not only to the Czech, but also to the Polish and, wider, Central European culture, in the universalizing perspective. In terms of methodology this dissertation owes a lot to the tools developed by Jacques Lacan, whose poststructuralist concepts, derived from psychiatry, affecting the world wide humanities seem to be particularly useful in the field of literary theory after the Holocaust. There are the phenomena of absence and emptiness entered into its essence, which describe properly the crux of the postwar experience; it also includes constant reference to the myth and to narrative, myth-creating activity, however some concepts and terms taken by Lacan-such as trauma, memory, aprés coup, juissance – are often redefined in this work as well as the methodology itself, which is often just a starting point for some transformations and modifications forced by the topic of the research. The construction of the book-as the nomenclature of its parts betrays-refers to the structure of the ancient Greek tragedy; this innovative procedure is intended not only for applying the Weberian concept of "theatricality of the medium", but it also indicates that after the Holocaust almost all categories of the ancient model, productive before in the field of culture and identity, are reinterpreted, if not even annihilated. The new after-Holocaust tragedy does not contain the catharsis anymore as well as there is no place for the appearance of Deus ex machina, but it becomes clear that the category of fate is sometimes constructed by humans against humans: this recognition is one of the results of the present drama analyses. Concentrated and cyclical time also gains new meaning in Auschwitz. The subjects of detailed studies are the works of Czech authors who are entered into the structure of the book as: protagonistes, the first actor-a survivor of the Holocaust; deuteragonistes, the second actor-the representative of the second generation of survivors; and tritagonistes, the third actor-the witness, who "looked at empty neighbouring windows". This way-in the Lacanian spirit – the net of sociological and psychological relations, which formed the basis of my choice, is cast on the literary study method; extracted three groups coexisting in postwar Czechoslovakia (survivors, their children and non-Jewish "neighbors")
Szesnasty numer „Poznanskich Studiow Slawistycznych” dotyczy problemu jednostkowej pamieci histor... more Szesnasty numer „Poznanskich Studiow Slawistycznych” dotyczy problemu jednostkowej pamieci historycznej i kulturowej oraz jej reprezentacji wobec kolektywnego zapominania i odpominania . Na obszarze Slowianszczyzny i Balkanow manipulowanie pamiecią zbiorową stanowi trwaly modus zmagania sie z historią. Odpominane/odpamietywane indywidualne narracje tzw. slabych bohaterow funkcjonują jako „przeciw-historia” (wedlug Michela Foucaulta), alternatywna reprezentacja przeszlości, a w pewnych warunkach takze jako ruch oporu wobec wladzy. W posttraumatycznej historii Europy powtarzalnym mechanizmem jest rowniez wyparcie powracające w sztuce w postaci fantazmatow (teza Jacquesʼa Lacana), ktore stanowią dla zbiorowości źrodlo nieoczywistego poznania – jak anamneza.
Agata FIRLEJ Adam Mickiewicz University (Poznan) Child-Lined: Hrabal’s Immature Characters This e... more Agata FIRLEJ Adam Mickiewicz University (Poznan) Child-Lined: Hrabal’s Immature Characters This essay deals with the category of ‘immaturity’ in Bohumil Hrabal’s prose works, as juxtaposed with the corresponding aspect in the philosophy and artistic practice of Witold Gombrowicz. ‘Immature’ characters of the Czech author’s novels – including, among others: Johnny Child from I Served the King of England; Mr. Kakra and Mr. Leli from Snowdrops Festival; Milos Pipka, grandpa Lukas and Mr. Smacker from Closely Watched Trains – envy the mature characters, much in the manner inhabitants of central-European countries envy some ‘older’ nations. These characters usually strive for simulating to their longed-for model but eventually start to understand that one ‘ought to feel s/he is a great person’. Immaturity is a category which – in Hrabal’s concept, similar in this respect to Gombrowicz’s – a counterbalance to communistic enslavement of minds, immaturity is freedom from any convention, coe...
Kolař’s plays Chleb nas vezdejsi and Mor v Athenach, written at the turn of the fifties and the s... more Kolař’s plays Chleb nas vezdejsi and Mor v Athenach, written at the turn of the fifties and the sixties, are the examples of aestheticization of testimonies and other texts about the Shoah. Kolař’s creative path is in a way pars pro toto of artistic and literary search of many authors reacting to the experience of Shoah and to many texts describing this hecatomb. Doubt in the previous aesthetics and in the polyphonic load of words is one of the most common experiences in the second half of the 20th century – until now. The author activates memory or cultural connotations of receiver and by eliminating a factual layer that could became a psychological safety valve that distracts, focuses a viewer (reader) on the most important and by it the most difficult to bear: to the event itself.
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