Framing the Holocaust in Polish Aftermath Cinema: Posthumous Materiality and Unwanted Knowledge (Palgrave Film Studies and Philosophy)

This book offers a unique perspective on contemporary Polish cinema’s engagement with histories of Polish violence against their Jewish neighbours during the Holocaust. Moving beyond conventional studies of historical representation on screen, the book considers how cinema reframes the unwanted knowledge of violence in its aftermaths. The book draws on Derridean hauntology, Didi-Huberman’s confrontations with art images, Levinasian ethics and anamorphosis to examine cinematic reconfigurations of histories and memories that are vulnerable to evasion and formlessness. Innovative analyses of Birthplace (Łoziński, 1992), It Looks Pretty From a Distance (Sasnal, 2011), Aftermath (Pasikowski, 2012), and Ida (Pawlikowski, 2013) explore how their rural filmic landscapes are predicated on the radical exclusion of Jewish neighbours, prompting archaeological processes of exhumation. Arguing that the distressing materiality of decomposition disturbs cinematic composition, the book examines how Poland’s aftermath cinema attempts to recompose itself through form and narrative as it faces Polish complicity in Jewish death. Acknowledgements Contents List of Figures Chapter 1: Polish Aftermath Cinema: Unwanted Knowledge, Unwanted Images ‘If He Knew This, He Wouldn’t Be Alive’: Unwanted Knowledge ‘A Breach in the History Conceived’: ...Where Is My Older Son Cain? ‘The Veil Finally Falls From Our Eyes’: Gross’s Neighbours After Such Knowledge? ‘The Function of Jewish Absence’: Visual Cultures After Jedwabne Jedwabne: Unwanted Images? Polish Aftermath Cinema Coming-to-Know ‘An Ocean of Variables’: Close Reading Framing the Material: Composition and Decomposition References Chapter 2: Earth and Bone: Framing Posthumous Materialities Anamorphosis I: The Blind Spot Anamorphosis II: The Lure Framing Knowledge and Theorising Meaning Levinas: Revelation Beyond Comprehension Derrida: Living-On, Living With Didi-Huberman: Knowledge and Not-Knowledge Matter and Meaning: A Spectrum ‘Landscape with Jewish Corpse’ Anamorphosis III: Landscape Posthumous Ecologies The Work of Soil Posthumous Archaeologies Bystander Cinema and the ‘Gaze of the Neighbour’ References Chapter 3: Posthumous Landscapes and the Earth-Archive: Archaeology, Ethics and Birthplace The Investigation and the Trace The Negated Home and ‘Anonymous Materiality’ Stratigraphic Images The (Domestic) Mise-en-Scene of Rescue The Landscape of Strained Ethics Face and Sur-face Between Epistemology and Ethics: The Visage Excavating Posthumous Landscapes Proximity: Facing Us, Facing Away Silence and Silencing References Chapter 4: Aftermath’s Cinematic Séance: Anamorphosis, Spectrality and Sentient Matter Unacknowledged Continuities Cinematografts Time Out of Joint Dislocating and Relocating: Archives and Archaeology Haunted Subjects Blind Spots ‘The Stones That Shout’ The End(s) of Haunting? References Chapter 5: The Fabric with Its Rend: Framing Grief, Materialising Loss and Ida’s Temporalities Erasures Unfoldings Framing Texture, Disappearing Into Depth Returning to (One’s) Birthplace From Earth to Earth Heavy Grief Troubled Vision Photographic Grief Loss Traced in Light Endings: ‘The Road of Time’ References Chapter 6: A Film Found on a Scrapheap: Abjection, Informe and It Looks Pretty from a Distance Allegory: First Approach The Abject Heterocosm ‘A Thin Film’: Abjection and Film Form From Abjection to Informe Rotten Sun: Witness and Memory Waste: A System Mess: An Anti-system ...But It Is Disgusting from Close Up Animality Allegory: Final Approach References Chapter 7: Conclusion: Not About, But After What Does xxxxxxx Mark? After Aftermath Cinema References Bibliography Index This book offers a unique perspective on contemporary Polish cinema's engagement with histories of Polish violence against their Jewish neighbours during the Holocaust. Moving beyond conventional studies of historical representation on screen, the book considers how cinema reframes the unwanted knowledge of violence in its aftermaths. The book draws on Derridean hauntology, Didi-Huberman's confrontations with art images, Levinasian ethics and anamorphosis to examine cinematic reconfigurations of histories and memories that are vulnerable to evasion and formlessness. Innovative analyses of Birthplace (Lozinski, 1992), It Looks Pretty From a Distance (Sasnal, 2011), Aftermath (Pasikowski, 2012), and Ida (Pawlikowski, 2013) explore how their rural filmic landscapes are predicated on the radical exclusion of Jewish neighbours, prompting archaeological processes of exhumation. Arguing that the distressing materiality of decomposition disturbs cinematic composition, the book examines how Poland's aftermath cinema attempts to recompose itself through form and narrative as it faces Polish complicity in Jewish death