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Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword by Kathleen Cioffi
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- List of Illustrations
- Introduction
- Part I Our Auschwitz: Grotowski's Akropolis
- Chapter 1 Jerzy Grotowski: A Very Short Introduction
- Chapter 2 Native Son: Grotowski in Poland
- Chapter 3 Grotowski: The Polish Context
- Chapter 4 Grotowski, the Messiah: Coming to America
- Chapter 5 The Making of an Aura
- Chapter 6 On Not Knowing Polish
- Chapter 7 “In Poland: That is to Say, Nowhere”
- Chapter 8 Akropolis/Necropolis
- Chapter 9 The Vision and the Symbol
- Chapter 10 “This Drama as Drama Cannot Be Staged”
- Chapter 11 Two National Sacrums
- Chapter 12 “Hollow Sneering Laughter”: Mourning the Columbuses
- Chapter 13 Against Heroics
- Chapter 14 Representing the Unrepresentable
- Chapter 15 Trip to the Museum
- Chapter 16 Bearing the Unbearable
- Chapter 17 The Living and the Dead
- Chapter 18 Jacob's Burden
- Chapter 19 The Final Descent
- Chapter 20 Textual Transpositions
- Chapter 21 Akropolis After Grotowski
- Part II Our Memory: Kantor's Dead Class
- Postscript
- Appendix
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 7 - “In Poland: That is to Say, Nowhere”
from Part I - Our Auschwitz: Grotowski's Akropolis
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword by Kathleen Cioffi
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- List of Illustrations
- Introduction
- Part I Our Auschwitz: Grotowski's Akropolis
- Chapter 1 Jerzy Grotowski: A Very Short Introduction
- Chapter 2 Native Son: Grotowski in Poland
- Chapter 3 Grotowski: The Polish Context
- Chapter 4 Grotowski, the Messiah: Coming to America
- Chapter 5 The Making of an Aura
- Chapter 6 On Not Knowing Polish
- Chapter 7 “In Poland: That is to Say, Nowhere”
- Chapter 8 Akropolis/Necropolis
- Chapter 9 The Vision and the Symbol
- Chapter 10 “This Drama as Drama Cannot Be Staged”
- Chapter 11 Two National Sacrums
- Chapter 12 “Hollow Sneering Laughter”: Mourning the Columbuses
- Chapter 13 Against Heroics
- Chapter 14 Representing the Unrepresentable
- Chapter 15 Trip to the Museum
- Chapter 16 Bearing the Unbearable
- Chapter 17 The Living and the Dead
- Chapter 18 Jacob's Burden
- Chapter 19 The Final Descent
- Chapter 20 Textual Transpositions
- Chapter 21 Akropolis After Grotowski
- Part II Our Memory: Kantor's Dead Class
- Postscript
- Appendix
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
If Wyspiański's Akropolis is an attempt to capture, condense and understand the Polish psyche at the end of the nineteenth century, Grotowski's Akropolis is an attempt to capture, condense and understand the new twentieth-century Polish consciousness, one forever framed by the smoke from the Auschwitz ovens. The fact that Grotowski chose Akropolis as his framework for a performance piece that seeks to respond to the trauma of the Holocaust is not accidental. Grotowski enters into a dialogue with Wyspiański, but to gain an understanding of what this dialogue entails, we must first understand the historical context surrounding the publication and production history of Wyspiański's drama. At the turn of the twentieth century, around the time Jarry wrote Ubu, Poland – in tune with its bleak European image – was swept by Romantic dreams of national greatness characterized by a combination of ironic self-awareness and fatalistic determination. As Margaret Croyden sums it up: “Periodically invaded, partitioned, dismembered, oppressed, and brutalized, and itself guilty of oppression and backwardness, Poland has embodied the modern tragedy in a world dominated by great powers. It has also come to symbolize heroic resistance to those powers, resistance depicted through the years by its great writers, poets and composers, and in our time by its film and theater directors as well.” Writing Akropolis, Wyspiański followed the tradition of engaging in political dialogue about Poland's liberatory project.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Post-traumatic Theatre of Grotowski and KantorHistory and Holocaust in 'Akropolis' and 'Dead Class', pp. 90 - 92Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2012