Napis (Dec 2022)
„Myszy wyglądały żałośnie” – stawanie się zwierzęciem w czasie pogromu kijowskiego we wspomnieniach Jecheskiela Kotika
Abstract
In 1881, Russia (after the killing of Alexander II, as well as for economic reasons) saw a wave of anti-Jewish riots, including the Kiev pogroms, the experience of which was portrayed by Yechezkel Kotik in his memoirs. He described the events by assuming the perspective of an animal – that of a mouse. Within contemporary humanist discourses, a significant proportion of which is taken up by animal studies, texts have been created which question the opposition constructed by the dominant, oppressive group (humane-animalistic, human-animal), but also research fields related to subjectivity have been delineated. The Jew-mouse after the publication of Maus by Art Spiegelman and its reviews, or the many texts produced in recent years within the field of Holocaust studies, say a lot about the reasons behind the animalistic choice. In the work of Kotik, however, we encounter a very different set of issues, because we know that the creator of the text is a nineteenth-century author. The pogroms in Russia have changed (in their ‘modernity’) the perception of violence against Jewish people, which is why the emergence of an animal perspective in a work originating from the early twentieth century brings forward certain vital conclusions.
