{"title":"活着的犹太人之夜(Noc żywych Żydów)","authors":"żywych Żydów, Igor Ostachowicz","doi":"10.1515/9783110671056-072","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Content and Interpretation Igor Ostachowicz’s novel has caused fierce discussion among scholars of Holocaust literature, just as it has polarised and divided the broader public. This is due in large part to the author’s strategy in presenting the subject, considered by many to be controversial, offensive, and inappropriate. Night of the Living Jews presents the fictional story of a Warsaw resident who becomes entangled in the history of the Holocaust as he is visited by living corpses of Jews exterminated during the war. By the conceit of the novel, they have remained all these years under the rubble and in the cellars of modern-day Warsaw, the inhabitants of an underground city. The story culminates with a scene set in Warsaw’s biggest shopping mall, Arcadia, where the main characters must fight for their lives. In this way, Ostachowicz’s strategy for representing history takes its cues from popular culture, most explicitly from the horror film Night of the Living Dead (1968), but there are also allusions to Tarantino’s Inglorious Bastards (2009) (Sobolewska, 2012). The motif of living corpses is thus linked to the notion of Jews who want not so much to avenge themselves (as in Tarantino’s film) as to change their future fate. The ludic aspect of the plot is reinforced by comic portrayals of Jews who cannot find their way in the everyday reality of a world dominated by commercial culture. Gradually, however, they give in to its charms (they go shopping, for instance). The writer does not shy away from the use of slapstick: in one scene, for example, a Jewish boy on a shopping spree loses his hand. The controversy generated by the novel is due primarily to its rejection of the prevailing form of Holocaust memorialisation, which is to say, the serious approach that people are accustomed to. 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引用次数: 0
摘要
Igor Ostachowicz的小说在大屠杀文学学者中引起了激烈的讨论,正如它使更广泛的公众两极分化和分裂一样。这在很大程度上是由于作者提出主题的策略,被许多人认为是有争议的,冒犯的,不恰当的。《活着的犹太人之夜》讲述了一个虚构的故事,一个华沙居民被大屠杀的历史纠缠在一起,因为他看到了在战争中被灭绝的犹太人的活着的尸体。根据小说的虚构,这些年来,他们一直生活在瓦砾下和现代华沙的地下室里,是地下城市的居民。故事的高潮发生在华沙最大的购物中心阿卡迪亚,主角们必须为生存而战。通过这种方式,Ostachowicz表现历史的策略从流行文化中获得线索,最明显的是恐怖电影《活死人之夜》(1968),但也有塔伦蒂诺的《无耻混蛋》(2009)(Sobolewska, 2012)的暗示。因此,活着的尸体的主题与犹太人的观念联系在一起,他们与其说是想为自己报仇(就像塔伦蒂诺的电影一样),不如说是想改变自己未来的命运。在商业文化主导的世界中,犹太人无法在日常现实中找到自己的道路,这一喜剧形象强化了情节的滑稽一面。然而,渐渐地,他们屈服于它的魅力(例如,他们去购物)。作者并不回避闹剧的使用:例如,在一个场景中,一个犹太男孩在疯狂购物时失去了他的手。这部小说引发的争议主要是由于它拒绝了流行的大屠杀纪念形式,也就是说,人们习惯的严肃方式。从表面上看,奥斯塔肖维茨小说的这一方面引起了厌恶甚至愤怒的反应。另一方面,通过这种方式激发读者,小说预先集中了我们的注意力
Content and Interpretation Igor Ostachowicz’s novel has caused fierce discussion among scholars of Holocaust literature, just as it has polarised and divided the broader public. This is due in large part to the author’s strategy in presenting the subject, considered by many to be controversial, offensive, and inappropriate. Night of the Living Jews presents the fictional story of a Warsaw resident who becomes entangled in the history of the Holocaust as he is visited by living corpses of Jews exterminated during the war. By the conceit of the novel, they have remained all these years under the rubble and in the cellars of modern-day Warsaw, the inhabitants of an underground city. The story culminates with a scene set in Warsaw’s biggest shopping mall, Arcadia, where the main characters must fight for their lives. In this way, Ostachowicz’s strategy for representing history takes its cues from popular culture, most explicitly from the horror film Night of the Living Dead (1968), but there are also allusions to Tarantino’s Inglorious Bastards (2009) (Sobolewska, 2012). The motif of living corpses is thus linked to the notion of Jews who want not so much to avenge themselves (as in Tarantino’s film) as to change their future fate. The ludic aspect of the plot is reinforced by comic portrayals of Jews who cannot find their way in the everyday reality of a world dominated by commercial culture. Gradually, however, they give in to its charms (they go shopping, for instance). The writer does not shy away from the use of slapstick: in one scene, for example, a Jewish boy on a shopping spree loses his hand. The controversy generated by the novel is due primarily to its rejection of the prevailing form of Holocaust memorialisation, which is to say, the serious approach that people are accustomed to. It is this aspect of Ostachowicz’s novel, on its surface, that has elicited reactions of disgust and even outrage. On the other hand, by provoking readers in this way, the novel focuses our attention pre-