Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword by Kathleen Cioffi
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- List of Illustrations
- Introduction
- Part I Our Auschwitz: Grotowski's Akropolis
- Part II Our Memory: Kantor's Dead Class
- Chapter 22 Tadeusz Kantor: A Very Short Introduction
- Chapter 23 Dead Class: The Making of the Legend
- Chapter 24 Dead Class in Poland
- Chapter 25 The Polish History Lesson
- Chapter 26 Dead Class Abroad
- Chapter 27 On Not Knowing Polish, Again
- Chapter 28 The Visual and the Puerile
- Chapter 29 The National and the Transnational
- Chapter 30 Witkiewicz's Tumor
- Chapter 31 An Age of Genius: Bruno Schulz and the Return to Childhood
- Chapter 32 Conversing with Gombrowicz: The Dead, the Funny, the Sacred and the Profane
- Chapter 33 Panirony: “A pain with a smile and a shrug”
- Chapter 34 Raising the Dead
- Chapter 35 Dead Class as Kaddish…
- Chapter 36 Dead Class as Dybbuk, or the Absence
- Chapter 37 The Dead and the Marionettes
- Chapter 38 Men and Objects
- Chapter 39 Dead Class as Forefathers' Eve
- Chapter 40 Dead Class: The Afterlife
- Postscript
- Appendix
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 33 - Panirony: “A pain with a smile and a shrug”
from Part II - Our Memory: Kantor's Dead Class
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword by Kathleen Cioffi
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- List of Illustrations
- Introduction
- Part I Our Auschwitz: Grotowski's Akropolis
- Part II Our Memory: Kantor's Dead Class
- Chapter 22 Tadeusz Kantor: A Very Short Introduction
- Chapter 23 Dead Class: The Making of the Legend
- Chapter 24 Dead Class in Poland
- Chapter 25 The Polish History Lesson
- Chapter 26 Dead Class Abroad
- Chapter 27 On Not Knowing Polish, Again
- Chapter 28 The Visual and the Puerile
- Chapter 29 The National and the Transnational
- Chapter 30 Witkiewicz's Tumor
- Chapter 31 An Age of Genius: Bruno Schulz and the Return to Childhood
- Chapter 32 Conversing with Gombrowicz: The Dead, the Funny, the Sacred and the Profane
- Chapter 33 Panirony: “A pain with a smile and a shrug”
- Chapter 34 Raising the Dead
- Chapter 35 Dead Class as Kaddish…
- Chapter 36 Dead Class as Dybbuk, or the Absence
- Chapter 37 The Dead and the Marionettes
- Chapter 38 Men and Objects
- Chapter 39 Dead Class as Forefathers' Eve
- Chapter 40 Dead Class: The Afterlife
- Postscript
- Appendix
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Dead Class successfully combines horror and humor, pathos and the grotesque. Its moments of horror are reinforced by humor; moments of pathos are reinforced by the grotesque. Without an understanding of the context and meaning of what the actors say, the humor is lost, and the delicate line between pathos and grotesque turns into sentimentality. Writing about Witkiewicz's humor, for example, Artur Sandauer asks: “What is Witkacy's humor about? What does it make fun of? After all, all laughter is laughter at something. To answer this question: Witkacy's humor, foremost, makes fun of realism. […] The second object of Witkacy's parody is the Young Polishness, which he knows well enough as he himself is its product. Finally, Witkacy's third victim, besides naturalism and Young Polishness, is himself.” The Young Polishness (młodopolszczyzna) that Sandauer mentions refers to a turn of the century literary movement in Polish literature that “attempted to revive the religious faith of a bygone age, treating the rites of Catholicism as a source of creative inspiration.” For the poets of “Young Poland,” “even the messianistic pathos of the great Romantic predecessors became an aesthetic impulse.” Due to its pathos and “stylistic extravaganza,” the Young Polishness acquired a pejorative connotation, inviting the scorn and disdain of the emerging avant-garde, with Witkacy and Gombrowicz leading the way. It also embodied the nationalistic, xenophobic impulse that became essential for the interwar period of nation-building, but that also had portentous undertones.
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- The Post-traumatic Theatre of Grotowski and KantorHistory and Holocaust in 'Akropolis' and 'Dead Class', pp. 244 - 251Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2012