Death is Merely a Comma: Immortality in the Cinema and Literature of Tadeusz Konwicki
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Death is Merely a Comma : Immortality in the Cinema and Literature of Tadeusz Konwicki. / Krakus, Anna Helena Alexandra.
In: The Polish Review, Vol. 64, No. 4, 2019, p. 3-27.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Death is Merely a Comma
T2 - Immortality in the Cinema and Literature of Tadeusz Konwicki
AU - Krakus, Anna Helena Alexandra
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - This article examines the motifs of death and immortality in Polish film director and author Tadeusz Konwicki's 1971 film Jak daleko stąd, jak blisko [How Far, How Near, 1971], and the 1979 novel Mała apokalipsa [A Minor Apocalypse]. In these works, Konwicki grapples with the idea of mortality—he both fixates on and does away with death. At the same time humorous and eerie visits from the other side undo death's absolute power, even in those cases where it appears to have succeeded. While Konwicki's earlier works had already began his foray into the topic, How Far, How Near marks a special moment in his oeuvre, one in which death becomes an unavoidable matter and yet its own opposite, eternal life. Furthermore, the release of How Far, How Near coincides with a political shift in Poland—Edward Gierek being installed as Party secretary with a consequent change in the metaphorical might of immortality in Polish political rhetoric. Konwicki's “immortality” resides in the aesthetic realm during a period in which political rhetoric ceases to spare political leaders from death, How Far, How Near thus marks a new moment in Konwicki's works, and it occurs during a new moment in Polish politics.
AB - This article examines the motifs of death and immortality in Polish film director and author Tadeusz Konwicki's 1971 film Jak daleko stąd, jak blisko [How Far, How Near, 1971], and the 1979 novel Mała apokalipsa [A Minor Apocalypse]. In these works, Konwicki grapples with the idea of mortality—he both fixates on and does away with death. At the same time humorous and eerie visits from the other side undo death's absolute power, even in those cases where it appears to have succeeded. While Konwicki's earlier works had already began his foray into the topic, How Far, How Near marks a special moment in his oeuvre, one in which death becomes an unavoidable matter and yet its own opposite, eternal life. Furthermore, the release of How Far, How Near coincides with a political shift in Poland—Edward Gierek being installed as Party secretary with a consequent change in the metaphorical might of immortality in Polish political rhetoric. Konwicki's “immortality” resides in the aesthetic realm during a period in which political rhetoric ceases to spare political leaders from death, How Far, How Near thus marks a new moment in Konwicki's works, and it occurs during a new moment in Polish politics.
U2 - 10.5406/polishreview.64.4.0003
DO - 10.5406/polishreview.64.4.0003
M3 - Journal article
VL - 64
SP - 3
EP - 27
JO - The Polish Review
JF - The Polish Review
SN - 0032-2970
IS - 4
ER -
ID: 248293107