
The Witness and the Body in Auschwitz
Early Literary Accounts of the Camp Experience
Bozena Karwowska(Author)
Lexington Books (Publisher)
Published on 24. October 2023
Book
Hardback
198 pages
978-1-6669-1693-5 (ISBN)
Description
The Witness and the Body in Auschwitz: Early Literary Accounts of the Camp Experience examines bodily descriptions from early testimonies of concentration camp survivors focusing on questions related to meanings of corporeality, as well as to Holocaust researchers, and links the discourse of the body with a social cartography of the Auschwitz camp complex. The heart of the book is comprised of memory-based texts written by survivors in the early years after the war. The early texts discussed were written in Polish and while some became internationally recognized, others, remain virtually unknown, especially outside of Poland. These early memoirs and literary works help navigate the space of the Auschwitz camp complex from the perspective of the victims' based on their experiences and decipher those areas devoid of narratives, spaces of "total annihilation." Literary accounts and early testimonies allow us to map the space of the camp differently than through the documents produced by the Nazi-perpetrators. Such a social cartography also includes specific gendered differences and allows Karwowska to critically analyze sensitive questions related to the body, gender, and sexuality of a prisoner.
Reviews / Votes
In a powerful and immensely readable study, Holocaust scholar Bozena Karwowska examines memory-based literary works written in Polish during the early post-war period. Focusing on Auschwitz, she uses language, theory, and history, to examine various "bodily" aspects of the prisoners' lives and camp experiences. Beginning with the concept that the body was the only possession of the prisoners, she moves from specific texts to under-researched aspects of camp lives, illuminating them through a close reading of gendered literature, including prisoners accounts of sexual exploitation and sexual violence in the camp. The result is a fascinating piece of cutting-edge scholarship that uses a critical reexamination of forgotten texts to present the prisoners' body in Auschwitz as both situation and space, while simultaneously showing how survivors constituted themselves soon after liberation as witnesses. -- Judy Tydor Baumel-Schwartz, Bar Ilan UniversityMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
10 b/w photos;
Dimensions
Height: 237 mm
Width: 158 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
499 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-6669-1693-5 (9781666916935)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Bozena Karwowska
The Witness and the Body in Auschwitz
Early Literary Accounts of the Camp Experience
E-Book
10/2023
1st Edition
Lexington Books
€82.99
Available for download

Bozena Karwowska
The Witness and the Body in Auschwitz
Early Literary Accounts of the Camp Experience
E-Book
10/2023
1st Edition
Lexington Books
€82.99
Available for download
Person
Bozena Karwowska is professor in the department of Central, Eastern and Northern European studies at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
Content
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Human Body in the Concentration Camp
Chapter 2: Reading Women's Auschwitz Literature. Seweryna Szmaglewska's Smoke over Birkenau - Then and Now
Chapter 3: Bystander as a Witness. Wieslaw Kielar and his Anus Mundi
Chapter 4: Writing an Auschwitz Memoir as an Autobiography
Chapter 5: Tadeusz Borowski - The Education of a Writer
Chapter 6: Prostitution in the Space of Violence
Chapter 7: Mapping Auschwitz: Space, Memory, Narration
Coda
Bibliography
Chapter 1: The Human Body in the Concentration Camp
Chapter 2: Reading Women's Auschwitz Literature. Seweryna Szmaglewska's Smoke over Birkenau - Then and Now
Chapter 3: Bystander as a Witness. Wieslaw Kielar and his Anus Mundi
Chapter 4: Writing an Auschwitz Memoir as an Autobiography
Chapter 5: Tadeusz Borowski - The Education of a Writer
Chapter 6: Prostitution in the Space of Violence
Chapter 7: Mapping Auschwitz: Space, Memory, Narration
Coda
Bibliography