Published: 2019-12-25

Death of a Fly. On "The Hunger Artist Departs" by Tadeusz Różewicz

Jakub Orzeszek Logo ORCID

Abstract

Western imagination describes a fly as an abject. It causes disgust and, as such, belongs to the “other world” of condamned and unwanted beings that define the end of humanity. This is the concept, which Tadeusz Rozewicz seems to undermine in The Hunger Artist Departs (1976). In Scene Four the main character of the play mourns for the fly he accidentally crushed in his hand, and furthermore he makes his “last confession” over insect’s corpse. This essay tries to examine the play with thanatological context (death of a fly as phantasmatic experience of protagonist’s own death). It also highlights funeral aspects of the work, which – together with The Trap (1982) and a poem interrupted conversation (1991) – expresses Rozewicz’s lament on Franz Kafka.

Keywords:

death , a fly , thanatology , Kafka , mourning

Citation rules

Orzeszek, J. (2019). Death of a Fly. On "The Hunger Artist Departs" by Tadeusz Różewicz. Zoophilologica. Polish Journal of Animal Studies, (5), 227–236. https://doi.org/10.31261/ZOOPHILOLOGICA.2019.05.18

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No. 5 (2019)
Published: 2019-12-31


ISSN: 2719-2687
eISSN: 2451-3849
Ikona DOI 10.31261/ZOOPHILOLOGICA

Publisher
Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego | University of Silesia Press

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