The Uncanny Soap: Zofia Nalkowska and the economy of the Holocaust

• Authors: Shallcross B.
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

This article is an abridged version of a chapter of a forthcoming book titled 'Object. Proximity and Vestiges'. The authoress focuses on material objects and the human corpse as a trace/testimony which was to be annihilated in the economy of the Holocaust. Objects and corpses were subject to a metamorphosis whose first stage was to render them ontically equal. The authoress' starting point was an analysis of use by the Nazis of human corpses as a raw material, e.g. for production of soap. Human body approached as a commodity is intrinsically combined with a modern rational warfare system and with its accompanying technological accountability that has replaced a moral responsibility. The consequence is a paradox described by her: the mass-scale killing removed the threat and repugnance represented by Jewish (dead) bodies.

Keywords

EN

HOLOCAUST ECONOMY; HUMAN CORPSE AS RAW MATERIAL

Discipline

• PHILOLOGY_&_LINGUISTICS: PHILOLOGY & LINGUISTICS

• Publisher: Institute of Literary Research, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Teksty Drugie (Second Texts)
• Year: 2007
• Issue: 5(107)
• Pages: 62-73
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Shallcross B.

• B. Shallcross, University of Chicago, Chicago, USA

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

08PLAAAA03607316