Fotografia (przed)holocaustowa : archiwa pamięci w "Fałszerzach pieprzu" Moniki Sznajderman

Abstract

The article presents the mechanism of uncovering the past in Monika Sznajderman’s novel The Counterfeiter’s Pepper. A Family Story. A series of pho-tographs sent by the relatives from America becomes for the author the starting point for her journey into the past marred by the memory of the Holocaust. The rediscovered photographs become, in the process of reconstructing the family history, literary landscapes of a world that no longer exists, while the author testifies to the physical closeness of the dead that she feels. The author constructs the past out of the broken photographs, contrasting them with other sources and searching for a point of contact with the family members lost in the Holocaust. Following Sznajderman’s process, the author of the article discusses and analyzes the issue of literary creation of characters (the memory of a person) on the basis of photographs and remarks upon the difficulties in reconciling with the familial past, resulting from complicated identity issues.