Papers by Grażyna Gajewska
ACADEMIA. Magazyn Polskiej Akademii Nauk, 2024
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Institute of Folklore «Marko Cepenkov» - Skopje Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje , 2024
The author analyzes Jaco Bouwer’s 2021 film Gaia in the context of the
Gaia Hypothesis and ecofem... more The author analyzes Jaco Bouwer’s 2021 film Gaia in the context of the
Gaia Hypothesis and ecofeminism, beginning with the myth of the first mother who emerged from chaos and gave birth to Uranos, Ourosi, and Pontos. The myth of the primordial mother who cares for and collaborates with her children, fighting for their well-being, became the underlying motif of the narrative of Gaia-Earth as the largest self-regulating system in the Solar System, with all entities working together to maintain optimal conditions for life and possessing the ability to respond to changing states and circumstances. Besides the Gaia Hypothesis conceived in this fashion, the text also presents the main premises of ecofeminism.
Figures such as Mother Earth, Woman-Nature, and the Caretaker—Life-Giving Tree function both in ecofeminist discourse and in the metaphors of the Gaia Hypothesis. They are also well-entrenched in cinema, as exemplified by Bouwer’s Gaia. The author is interested in how nature is portrayed, how the film outlines the relationship between humans and non-humans, and whether it approaches nature-culture traditionally—as separate and conflicted areas—or whether it opts for the post-humanist view, which sees it as a nature-cultural sphere of multiple flows. Furthermore, the study examines the symbolic role of male and female
protagonists (both human and non-human) in Bouwer’s film.
Przestrzenie Teorii, Jan 4, 2024
The author analyzes the works of Patricia Piccinini (sculpture), Shaun Tan (literature) and Joon-... more The author analyzes the works of Patricia Piccinini (sculpture), Shaun Tan (literature) and Joon-ho Bong (film) in terms of the post-humanist idea of interspecies familiarity. The text begins with an explanation of the term Kinship, and then indicates to what extent post-humanism extends its scope and describes the emotional ties between human and other-than-human members of the household. The author presents this kind of post-humanist, multi-genre family life in three different versions: in the field of visual arts, these will be works from the Welcome Guest, and Families of the Future by Piccinini, in the field of the literature-Tan's Tales from the Inner City, and the film representation-Okja by Bong. Although each of these works brings out slightly different aspects and contexts of the post-humanist vision of the concept of Kinship, they share an openness to what is other-than-human, combined with care and tenderness.
Teksty Drugie, Jun 1, 2021
To tytuł kilku utworów literackich 2 , spekulatywnych rozważań z rodzaju non-fiction 3 , jak i sp... more To tytuł kilku utworów literackich 2 , spekulatywnych rozważań z rodzaju non-fiction 3 , jak i spekulacji o prawdopodobnych kierunkach rozwoju dziejów, gdyby niektóre wydarzenia potoczyły się nieco inaczej. Na przykład: czy chrześcijaństwo rozwinęłoby się, gdyby historyczny Jezus nie został ukrzyżowany?, jak wyglądałby polityczny, ekonomiczny i kulturalny krajobraz Europy, gdyby hitlerowcy wygrali II wojnę? Te pytania zadano w książce Historia niebyła: co by było, gdyby? autorstwa Alexandra Demanndta 4 , w której czytamy: "Bez konstruowania hipotez na temat niezaistniałych ewentualności, nie można rekonstruować historycznej rzeczywistości. Rozważanie alternatywnych rozwiązań jest nieodzownym składnikiem historii jako nauki" 5. Do naukowej fikcji (scientific fiction w odróżnieniu od science fiction) sytuującej się między science fiction a literaturą faktu, należy też znana polskim czytelnikom książka Kwintet z Cambridge. Owoc naukowej wyobraźni z 1998 r. Johna L. Castiego, w której przy jednym stole zasiada pięciu naukowców reprezentujących różne dyscypliny naukowe:
Miscellanea Anthropologica et Sociologica, 2017
Studia Europaea Gnesnensa, Dec 15, 2015
Przestrzenie Teorii, 2011
Studia Europaea Gnesnensia, 2013
The article addresses the issue of diverse contemporary manifestations of postmemory. although wo... more The article addresses the issue of diverse contemporary manifestations of postmemory. although works of literature, graphic arts, architecture and sculpture, belonging to the so-called high art culture, have already been analysed with respect to post memory and post-traumatic culture, the domain of popular culture remains practically excluded from such analyses. meanwhile, it is precisely popular culture that has a considerable impact on the attitudes and views of the people living today. The omnipresence of pop-culture, the pressure it exerts prompts re-evaluation of entire culture, not only its entertainment-related domains. Post-traumatic culture is largely shaped within and through popular culture, which is evinced in the popularity of the graphic story entitled "achtung Zelig! Druga wojna" by krzysztof Gawronkiewicz (art) and krystian rosenberg (story), displaying numerous traits defined as postmemory. a detailed analysis of the comic book permits the author to reveal those qualities.
Studia Europaea Gnesnensa, Jun 15, 2018
Since the mid-twentieth century, there has been a discussion in the academy about "two cultures":... more Since the mid-twentieth century, there has been a discussion in the academy about "two cultures": humanities and sciences and the so-called third culture. In this article I outline the history of this debate. I also present new trends in contemporary humanistic reflection: posthumanism and transhumanism, which are based on interdisciplinary research. I am also describing the projects and the output of several currents of contemporary art: robotic art, bio art and bio-robotic art.
Studia Europaea Gnesnensa, 2014
e principal hypothesis of our inquiry states that the mechanisms of power and controlling human l... more e principal hypothesis of our inquiry states that the mechanisms of power and controlling human life, practiced by the Nazis during World War 2, re ected the modern approach to the human de ned in the categories of life unworthy of life. e studies conducted hitherto in the context of the above hypothesis focus on the sites which in the wake of commemorating the extermination are treated as symbols of the genocide industry, such as the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. In turn, this article aims to investigate the validity of the hypothesis with regards to a site which so far has not been considered in cultural studies (for example the Hospital for the Mentally Ill "Dziekanka" in Gniezno-in addition, we treat this hospital as the exempli cation of the wider ideological, political, economic phenomenon). I wish to show that the phenomena of reducing and destroying human life, which held no value for the authority, was virtually identical regardless of the place where the extermination took place. us, we will establish a new point on the map of memory of the victims of Nazi policies, a site where the annihilation was carried out, at the same time demonstrating the particular features associated with that particular space. e "might" of the German authority during World War 2 was founded on tremendous attention to detail; consequently, that which took place in the sites of mass extermination proceeded in much the same way in those places which are now hardly remembered. Key words euthanasia, pseudo-euthanasia, T4 Action, Nazi crimes, cultural memory 1 Artykuł powstał w ramach projektu "Akcja T4 w Wielkopolsce: pseudoeutanazja w szpitalu "Dziekanka" w Gnieźnie" ze środków przyznanych przez Polsko-Niemiecką Fundację na rzecz Nauki (100287).
Studia Europaea Gnesnensa, 2015
The article is concerned with the relation between people and animals in Western culture. First, ... more The article is concerned with the relation between people and animals in Western culture. First, the author describes the anthropocentric model upon which these reports are developed. Subsequently, the paper presents non-anthropocentric concepts formulated in the posthumanistic discourse. Key words posthumanism, human and non-human animals, non-anthropocentric ideas, ecology 1 Publikacja powstała w ramach projektu "Erotyka sztucznych ciał", program OPUS NCN, i stanowi rozdział przygotowywanej książki o relacjach ludzi z nieludźmi: zwierzętami, przedmiotami. Projekt został sfinansowany ze środków Narodowego Centrum Nauki przyznanych na podstawie decyzji numer DEC-2012/05/B/HS2/04092.
Przestrzenie Teorii, Dec 15, 2021
The author puts forward the thesis that the challenges of the current times resulting from enviro... more The author puts forward the thesis that the challenges of the current times resulting from environmental change, the destruction of habitats and ecological disasters direct our sensibilities and aesthetics ever more tangibly towards the fantastic or ecofiction: (eco)horror, (eco)science fiction, or (eco)fantasy. However, while ecohorror mainly exposes the negative aftermath of the Anthropocene, culminating in inevitable disaster, science fiction offers leeway for a more speculative approach, enabling one to construct such visions of reality in which multispecies justice will be observed and cultivated. The author follows K.S. Robinson's line of thinking that "science fiction is a new realism", A. Ghosh's analysis of the relationship between literature and ecology, and D. Haraway's research on new ways of understanding the relationships between people and non-humans using the speculative potential of sci-fi. It is therefore suggested that there is a great need for a science fiction vision, aesthetic and narration that would be capable of guiding us out of the anthropocentric entanglement and the Anthropocene/Capitalocene into the Chthulucene (as conceived by Haraway).
Images, Jan 13, 2011
Termin postpamięć (postmemory) wprowadziła Marianne Hirsch w pracy Family Frames: Photography, Na... more Termin postpamięć (postmemory) wprowadziła Marianne Hirsch w pracy Family Frames: Photography, Narrative and Postmemory jako kategorię opisu sytuacji psychicznej dzieci ofiar Holocaustu. Badaczka terminem tym zaznaczała cechy doświadczeń osób, które dorastały w cieniu opowieści o zdarzeniach rozgrywających się przed ich urodzeniem. Ich własne wspomnienia musiały ustąpić miejsca historiom dziadków i/lub rodziców, ukształtowanym w traumatycznych okolicznościach[ 2 ]. Z tak rozumianą postpamięcią mamy do czynienia np. w dwutomowym komiksie Maus: opowieść ocalałego Arta Spiegelmana, w którym młody mężczyzna przedstawia losy swoich rodziców w okupowanej Polsce, a jednocześnie wskazuje, jak pobyt jego ojca w nazistowskim obozie zagłady Auschwitz zdeterminował charakter więzi emocjonalnych między rodzicem a dzieckiem. Wkrótce jednak terminem postpamięć zaczęto określać także zjawiska wykraczające poza sytuację psychiczną dzieci ofiar Holocaustu, na przykład pamięć zapożyczoną czy wręcz przywłaszczoną przez ludzi "wspominających" wydarzenia, których nie byli uczestnikami. Za Joanną Tokarską-Bakir wskazać można przypadek Szwajcara, Benjamina Wlkomirskiego, który w 1995 r. opublikował książkę Bruchstücke, w której opisywał rzekomo swoje doświadczenia z dzieciństwa, gdy był więźniem obozu koncentracyjnego. Kilka lat po wydaniu tej "autobiograficznej" książki okazało się, że wspomnienia autora zostały wymyślone[ 3 ]. Obok tak rozumianej postpamięci, gdy ktoś przyswaja sobie cudzy uraz, można wskazać także inne jej przejawy, np. rozmaite zafałszowania prowadzące do osobliwych, mitotwórczych ujęć przeszłości, jak w filmach Lista Schindlera (1993) Stevena Spielberga, Życie jest piękne (1997) Roberto Benigniego czy Bękarty wojny (2009) Quentina Tarantino. Wprowadzenie do problematyki postpamięci grażyna gajewska Postpamięć jako marzenie senne-Achtung Zelig! Druga wojna Krzysztofa Gawronkiewicza i Krystiana Rosenberga[ 1 ]
Przestrzenie Teorii, Dec 15, 2020
Przegląd Kulturoznawczy, 2021
When formulating proecological strategies, social imagination is devoted relatively little attent... more When formulating proecological strategies, social imagination is devoted relatively little attention. Contribution of the humanities to the management in the age of the Anthropocene is most often perceived as explaining threats that we and the future human and non-human beings will have to face as a result of irresponsible environmental policies. Hence, the presumed task of the humanities (and social science) consists primarily in analyzing and presenting the causes and the processes which culminated in the climate crisis and the decline of biodiversity. However, such an approach does not allow this knowledge to be actively engaged in constructing alternative, proecological attitudes. Consequently, I argue in this paper that in order for the state of affairs to change one requires not only new scientific tools (methodology, language), but also new sensitivity and aesthetics. The author argues that the challenges of the current times, resulting from environmental change, destruction of habitats and ecological disasters, direct our sensibilities and aesthetics ever more tangibly towards the fantastic: horror, science fiction, or fantasy. However, while ecohorror mainly exposes the negative aftermath of the Anthropocene-culminating in the inevitable disaster-science fiction offers leeway for a more speculative approach, enabling one to construct such visions of reality in which multispecies justice will be observed and cultivated. It is therefore suggested that there is much need for a science fiction aesthetic and narration that would be capable of guiding us out of the anthropocentric entanglement and the Anthropocene into the Chthulucene (as conceived by Haraway).
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Papers by Grażyna Gajewska
Gaia Hypothesis and ecofeminism, beginning with the myth of the first mother who emerged from chaos and gave birth to Uranos, Ourosi, and Pontos. The myth of the primordial mother who cares for and collaborates with her children, fighting for their well-being, became the underlying motif of the narrative of Gaia-Earth as the largest self-regulating system in the Solar System, with all entities working together to maintain optimal conditions for life and possessing the ability to respond to changing states and circumstances. Besides the Gaia Hypothesis conceived in this fashion, the text also presents the main premises of ecofeminism.
Figures such as Mother Earth, Woman-Nature, and the Caretaker—Life-Giving Tree function both in ecofeminist discourse and in the metaphors of the Gaia Hypothesis. They are also well-entrenched in cinema, as exemplified by Bouwer’s Gaia. The author is interested in how nature is portrayed, how the film outlines the relationship between humans and non-humans, and whether it approaches nature-culture traditionally—as separate and conflicted areas—or whether it opts for the post-humanist view, which sees it as a nature-cultural sphere of multiple flows. Furthermore, the study examines the symbolic role of male and female
protagonists (both human and non-human) in Bouwer’s film.
Gaia Hypothesis and ecofeminism, beginning with the myth of the first mother who emerged from chaos and gave birth to Uranos, Ourosi, and Pontos. The myth of the primordial mother who cares for and collaborates with her children, fighting for their well-being, became the underlying motif of the narrative of Gaia-Earth as the largest self-regulating system in the Solar System, with all entities working together to maintain optimal conditions for life and possessing the ability to respond to changing states and circumstances. Besides the Gaia Hypothesis conceived in this fashion, the text also presents the main premises of ecofeminism.
Figures such as Mother Earth, Woman-Nature, and the Caretaker—Life-Giving Tree function both in ecofeminist discourse and in the metaphors of the Gaia Hypothesis. They are also well-entrenched in cinema, as exemplified by Bouwer’s Gaia. The author is interested in how nature is portrayed, how the film outlines the relationship between humans and non-humans, and whether it approaches nature-culture traditionally—as separate and conflicted areas—or whether it opts for the post-humanist view, which sees it as a nature-cultural sphere of multiple flows. Furthermore, the study examines the symbolic role of male and female
protagonists (both human and non-human) in Bouwer’s film.
-cybernetic cyborg (as a cinematic hero and political, social and technomedical construct) or the genetically programmed plantimal (as in Eduardo Kac’s bioart) appear as embodied displays of posthumanist monstrousness. Chapter Two deals with relations: in terms of species (between us and other animals), between us as animals, between nature and civilisation (technoscience, biopolitics), between human and plant, microorganic actants. Many of these relationships are burdened
with reification, possession and violence. In this paper, I identify works that are a critical commentary on the violent and object-oriented way in which relationships are constructed between different forms of life. Then, in line with the assumption that the constant reference to hierarchy, appropriation and exploration does not allow us to move beyond the
narcissism of anthropocentrism and the Anthropocene, attention is turned to those works that address the theme of relationships based on coexistence, which expand the meaning of kinship bonds (kin) and promote a vision of the Chthulucene that draws on scientific research, speculative thinking and artistic fiction. Expanding such relationships also entails reflecting on their complications, not only in the sense proposed by the affirmative version of posthumanism, but also in the sense of sharing illnesses, of mourning a loss after the death of human and non-human life companions. It is also a story of pandemics and the isolation and demons they engender.
In the third chapter, time and space are brought to the fore. These reflections are directed towards how human life is entangled with geological, environmental and civilisational changes in the short term (e.g. individual as well as the life of Homo sapiens as a species) and
deep time (the existence of the planet, rocks). We will look at futuristic scenarios from science fiction works written at a time of growing environmental pollution and the escalating climate crisis and ask what vision of the future they offer, if any? These are also questions
about representations of unequal access to natural goods, food, fresh air and clean water, and speculations about possible future wars over relatively fertile and toxin-free lands. In this sense, not only time but also place, shrinking living space, plays a significant role in creating images of the future. Is the alternative to leave a destroyed Earth and colonise Mars or drift in space for a few hundred years? What about those who remain on a destroyed Earth? Without other, non-human organisms, is the survival of Homo sapiens possible? These are just a few of the many questions asked of works of fantasy in this monograph.
Introduction/Chapter 1. : The Dynamics of Affects and Experiences of the More- and Other-than-Human Bodies
When eroticism and sex are discussed, the attention most often focuses on what takes place between people. In this work, the erotic spectacle is more comprehensive and features non-human actors: things, stuff, objects. I set out from the assumption that objects, such as clothing, undergarments, footwear, and jewellery play an important role in stimulating erotic imagination, becoming participants in that process. The theoretical foundation for acknowledging things as active contributors to social relationships (as one should approach amorous-erotic-sexual relationships) derives from the anthropology of things. This perspective is also tangibly present in my analyses, since I seek to show the (post)human, transversal, liminal bodies as they become fused with other—animate and inanimate—bodies and objects. The attribute of “more- and other-than-human” in the title refers to the human, but a human construed in accordance with the concepts posited by the posthuman, new materialism and anthropology of things; an entity functioning in complex networks that link them inseparably with other beings: things, objects, animals, plants, sand, or water.
Chapter 2. More-than-human Network of Relationality
In this chapter I present theoretical and methodological issues. I show that research, generally referred as study of things, functions in different contexts. The baseline standpoint adopted by Daniel Miller, Peter Pells, Ikuya Tokoro and Kari Kawai is that of social sciences and anthropology, whereas Donna J. Haraway, Bruno Latour, and Rosi Braidotti take into account the outcomes of advances in science, biomedical ones in particular, as well as examine languages and images we employ to convey them. Natural sciences, medicine and biotechnology have long questioned the traditional conceptions of the human as a being apart with respect to other forms of life. Although the main research perspective in this chapter is anthropology of things, I also present here the issues developed in the framework of new materialism, posthumanism and transhumanism.
Chapter 3. Nature as a Phantasm of Culture
In this chapter I focus on the ambivalence of the duality ‘animal sex – human erotica’. I depart from such clear-cut oppositions which juxtapose the animal against the human, nature against culture, and the normative against the non-normative. This owes to reflection inspired by the ideas of the posthuman, new materialism and the concept of posthuman sexuality which grew out of that intellectual background. In the perspective I have adopted, the dichotomy of “animal sex” versus “human eroticism” is hardly tenable. One can still track down and deconstruct such notions as well as suggest new ways of conceiving and presenting the complex relationships between the human and the non-human, or else still—to portray the sphere of eroticism within a nexus of manifold, non-binary but yet mutable, networked relations. What does not reveal directly returns in secret form: in costumes, utility items, design and eaten products.
Chapter 4. The Obsession of Artificial Bodies
The heroes and heroines of this chapter are: mannequins, dolls, androids, cyborgs from literature and science fiction. I showed the gender context of those phenomena, as I am convinced that the aesthetic paragons of male and female physiques with their erotic overtones enact certain models of social relationships, and thus impose roles to be performed due to gender. Stories, novels, films – these are the areas of analysis of this chapter. Analyzing various literary, film, art works, I ask about the attitude of people to technology: its potential, limitations, entanglement in new forms of discrimination and oppression.
Chapter 5. The “Beloved” Objects
This chapter looks at things closest to one’s body (in the literal sense): clothes, underwear, footwear and considers the affects engendered by those objects. These roles are perpetuated (and much less often undermined) not only by dedicated systems of laws, morality, and customs, but also by a plethora of items, things, and objects by means of which we assume certain roles. The main category organizing the analysis of eroticism and sexuality in this approach is “obscenity”. I show ambivalent and related this term in the contemporary culture.
Conclusion/ Chapter 6.
This work is concerned with bodies, items, and substances in the material sense, as well as in the relationships between humans and nonhumans, other-than-humans, more-than-humans. The ties and associations with the things we produce, use, watch, and touch are by no means straightforward and limited to mere functionality. I perceive them rather as complex relationships of interwoven ingenuity, impulses, and affects. The goal I strove to accomplish was to show that in the erotic sphere the relationships are multilayered and exceedingly intricate. The eroticism of arch-non-human bodies spans affects and conscious modes of (self)creation, while things, objects do take part in these “dealings”. In the afterword, I showed that thinking about our-human, relationships with stuff, objects, and no human, more-than-human, finding non-human in ourselves, opens up new cognitive, emotional and social/community perspectives.
When eroticism and sex are discussed, the attention most often focuses on what takes place between people. In this work, the erotic spectacle is more comprehensive and features non-human actors: things, stuff, objects. I set out from the assumption that objects, such as clothing, undergarments, footwear, and jewellery play an important role in stimulating erotic imagination, becoming participants in that process. The theoretical foundation for acknowledging things as active contributors to social relationships (as one should approach amorous-erotic-sexual relationships) derives from the anthropology of things. This perspective is also tangibly present in my analyses, since I seek to show the (post)human, transversal, liminal bodies as they become fused with other—animate and inanimate—bodies and objects. The attribute of “more- and other-than-human” in the title refers to the human, but a human construed in accordance with the concepts posited by the posthuman, new materialism and anthropology of things; an entity functioning in complex networks that link them inseparably with other beings: things, objects, animals, plants, sand, or water.
Chapter 2. More-than-human Network of Relationality
In this chapter I present theoretical and methodological issues. I show that research, generally referred as study of things, functions in different contexts. The baseline standpoint adopted by Daniel Miller, Peter Pells, Ikuya Tokoro and Kari Kawai is that of social sciences and anthropology, whereas Donna J. Haraway, Bruno Latour, and Rosi Braidotti take into account the outcomes of advances in science, biomedical ones in particular, as well as examine languages and images we employ to convey them. Natural sciences, medicine and biotechnology have long questioned the traditional conceptions of the human as a being apart with respect to other forms of life. Although the main research perspective in this chapter is anthropology of things, I also present here the issues developed in the framework of new materialism, posthumanism and transhumanism.
Chapter 3. Nature as a Phantasm of Culture
In this chapter I focus on the ambivalence of the duality ‘animal sex – human erotica’. I depart from such clear-cut oppositions which juxtapose the animal against the human, nature against culture, and the normative against the non-normative. This owes to reflection inspired by the ideas of the posthuman, new materialism and the concept of posthuman sexuality which grew out of that intellectual background. In the perspective I have adopted, the dichotomy of “animal sex” versus “human eroticism” is hardly tenable. One can still track down and deconstruct such notions as well as suggest new ways of conceiving and presenting the complex relationships between the human and the non-human, or else still—to portray the sphere of eroticism within a nexus of manifold, non-binary but yet mutable, networked relations. What does not reveal directly returns in secret form: in costumes, utility items, design and eaten products.
Chapter 4. The Obsession of Artificial Bodies
The heroes and heroines of this chapter are: mannequins, dolls, androids, cyborgs from literature and science fiction. I showed the gender context of those phenomena, as I am convinced that the aesthetic paragons of male and female physiques with their erotic overtones enact certain models of social relationships, and thus impose roles to be performed due to gender. Stories, novels, films – these are the areas of analysis of this chapter. Analyzing various literary, film, art works, I ask about the attitude of people to technology: its potential, limitations, entanglement in new forms of discrimination and oppression.
Chapter 5. The “Beloved” Objects
This chapter looks at things closest to one’s body (in the literal sense): clothes, underwear, footwear and considers the affects engendered by those objects. These roles are perpetuated (and much less often undermined) not only by dedicated systems of laws, morality, and customs, but also by a plethora of items, things, and objects by means of which we assume certain roles. The main category organizing the analysis of eroticism and sexuality in this approach is “obscenity”. I show ambivalent and related this term in the contemporary culture.
Conclusion/ Chapter 6.
This work is concerned with bodies, items, and substances in the material sense, as well as in the relationships between humans and nonhumans, other-than-humans, more-than-humans. The ties and associations with the things we produce, use, watch, and touch are by no means straightforward and limited to mere functionality. I perceive them rather as complex relationships of interwoven ingenuity, impulses, and affects. The goal I strove to accomplish was to show that in the erotic sphere the relationships are multilayered and exceedingly intricate. The eroticism of arch-non-human bodies spans affects and conscious modes of (self)creation, while things, objects do take part in these “dealings”. In the afterword, I showed that thinking about our-human, relationships with stuff, objects, and no human, more-than-human, finding non-human in ourselves, opens up new cognitive, emotional and social/community perspectives.
Such a redefinition of the term corresponded with the notions entertained by the German medical milieu of the interwar period, which became increasingly radical in the 1930s. On a broader scale, it was in tune with the Nazi conception of building a strong, vigorous and healthy nation where the chronically ill or the mentally disabled had no place. Since 1939 onwards, that policy was implemented by an organized and institutionalized machine; the rules concerning “euthanasia” of handicapped children, drafted in June 1939, followed by a circular issued to midwifes in August that year by the Reichs Ministry of the Interior, which required them to report births of disabled children, contributed to setting it in motion. The population of adult patients was also devoured by the machinery eliminating “worthless” individuals from the society. Karl Brandt and Philipp Bouhler, empowered by Adolf Hitler under the order of September 20th/21st, 1939 (antedated to September 1st) to extend the competences of physicians who were to select the incurably ill and condemn them to death, engineered the so-called Aktion T4 (the name originated with the address of its headquarters, Tiergartenstrasse 4 in Berlin) – mass killings of the chronically ill and the mentally disabled. Although the letter mentions that the ill were to be given merciful death, which might have suggested humanistic, even humanitarian rationale which motivated the originators of T4 and the involved practitioners, the true aim was neither to alleviate the sufferings nor ensure dignified passing; it was planned extermination of those whom the Nazis saw as an unnecessary burden for the German nation.
For this reason, when referring to the murders committed on patients of psychiatric institutions, this publication does not employ the term euthanasia but pseudo-euthanasia or, alternatively, “euthanasia”. This is intended to underscore the fact that the meaning of euthanasia, an act intended to bring relief to the patient and enable them to die in dignity, is jarringly at odds with actions undertaken by the Nazis during the Third Reich to eliminate people who were considered a superfluous encumbrance from the German national community. There is no doubt that in moral terms, there is a colossal difference between the situation when an individual themselves (or his immediate family) take the decision to end their life due to serious, terminal condition and when that person is murdered for ideological reason, without one’s consent or without any knowledge on the part of the family. This moral aspect is present throughout the monograph. At the same time, the authors of particular chapters attempt to show a broad political, legal, economic and intellectual context of Nazi actions undertaken with regard to the chronically ill and the mentally disabled.
Our attention focused not only on the procedures and the course of pseudo-euthanasia in the six sites designated by the Nazis to participate in the Action T4 proper, but also on murders of patients in institutions across the Wartheland (Land of the Warta), to which literature of the subject refers as wild or random euthanasia. Although methods of exterminating patients which had been brought there resembled (or even imitated) measures developed in the T4 facilities in the Reich, the underlying reasons were different: first, hospitals were to be cleared of patients and their buildings and equipment seized; subsequently, appropriate conditions had to be created and procedures implemented to enable organized killings of people from different countries who suffered from unrecoverable illnesses or were pronounced socially dysfunctional. Thus, the ultimate objective was not a renewal of the Aryan race through extermination of members of the German community who failed to meet the mark of being healthy, strong, vigorous, hard-working and disciplined citizens of the Third Reich, but elimination of people from the conquered territories (as well as Germany itself), who had to be disposed of to reduce expenditure, or in view of their low productivity as well as inferior racial and national origin. From a political and strategic viewpoint, it was also important to acquire medical outposts in the incorporated territories (with suitable facilities repurposed for the army or turned into hospitals for German patients only) . In the Wartheland, victims were gassed, initially at Fort VII in Poznań and then in specially adapted vehicles. Altogether, approximately 4,500 patients from psychiatric institutions in Owińska, Gniezno, Kościan, Warta, Łódź (Kochanówka) and the Clinic of Neurology and Psychiatry in Poznań were killed in the region.
Given this broad historical context, we sought to draw more attention to the hospital in Gniezno. It was one of the sites which during World War II was converted into a camp serving to exterminate large numbers of people. Next to Warta, it was the only one to function until the end of hostilities. The “Dziekanka”, which operated under the name of Tiegenhof until 1945, was a place of suffering, fear (experienced not only by patients but also by low-level personnel) and inconceivable abuse of medical ethics. However, that part of the history of Gniezno is most often deliberately overlooked, in a sense becoming obscured and erased. Also, at the hospital itself, there is a small room where a visitor may find several pieces of equipment and archival material from the period, as well as a library where letters of the victims’ families and the scantily preserved documents are kept. Neither is often visited by young people, history teachers and tour guides. This monograph attempts to bring back the memory of people who had been brought from various regions in occupied Poland and from across Europe to places such as Tiegenhof, because Nazi ideology found their lives to be unworthy of any protection, solicitude or respect.
This monograph is the outcome of a Polish-German project entitled Action T4 in Greater Poland: Pseudo-Euthanasia at the Dziekanka Hospital in Gniezno, financed by the Polish-German Foundation for Science. The partners involved in the project were the Department of Contemporary Culture and Multimedia, AMU Institute of European Culture, Poland, and the Hadamar Memorial (Gedenkstätte Hadamar), Germany.