Literatura łagrowa i lagrowa – ku interdyscyplinarnej definicji gatunku

Abstract

The article presents an attempt to look anew at the phenomenon of ‘labour camp literature’, which describes experiences of the protagonists in totalitarian labour camps or death camps (Nazi as well as Soviet). The endeavour relies on proposing a genological definition of this type of literature, through utilising the categories established by exponents of cognitive anthropology (Dan Sperber, Lena Cosmides, John Tooby, et al.) in relation to the experiences the main characters of these works live through. By making use of notions such as ‘meta-representation’, ‘gathering incidental information’, ‘source markers of representation’, or ‘schizophrenic disorder of the association centre’, it is possible – according to the author of the article – to identify a range of particular, extreme experiences of the protagonists of ‘labour camp literature’ (for example, the works of Solzhenitsyn, Shalamov, Kertész), connecting their experiences to the negative traits of the modern era.

Keywords

• concentration camp
• the Gulag
• liminal experience
• literary testimony of mass extermination
• cognitive studies