The publication by Prof. Morawiec expands the boundaries of Polish camp literature. So far, due to politics, ideology, the scarcity of historical knowledge, the lack of literary research, and frequent manipulation concerning terms such as "concentration camp", "forced labour camp", and "death camp" this type of literature has been defined too narrowly. Camp literature was initially limited to "Lager" literature (pertaining to Nazi German camps). Over time, also gulag literature (pertaining to Soviet camps) appeared. It turns out that Polish camp literature is much more extensive and richer.
The publication consists of mini-monographs on Polish literary works pertaining either to a specific camp or a specific type (system) of camps. The chapters devoted to gulag literature (i.e. texts about the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp and Lager literature (i.e. texts about Konzentrationslager Buchenwald) expand on established findings. The following ones deal with topics previously unexplored, namely, the literature related to Polish camps, such as the prewar Place of Isolation in Bereza Kartuska and the postwar communist concentration and labour camps in Łambinowice and Jaworzno, the Spanish (Francoist) Campo de Concentración de Miranda de Ebro, and the Japanese Unit 731 and its research centre in Pingfang (Manchuria), which included – on top of laboratories and chemical and bacteriological weapons production units – a prison, a gas chamber, and crematoria.
The monograph is to provide an incentive for further exploration of unknown and insufficiently explored areas of Polish camp literature, juxtaposing and comparing them, and then, through embedding the Polish literary output in the context of other national literatures, for charting a map of world camp literature.
More information about the monograph can be found on the Routledge publishing website.
Source: Routledge Publishing