The apotheosis of a Silesian miner: Scapegoating in "The Beads of One Rosary"

Andrzej Fretschel-Hojarski

doi:10.55225/hcs.547

Authors

Andrzej Fretschel-Hojarski Jagiellonian Language Center Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9294-4417

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55225/hcs.547

Keywords:

scapegoating, victimage, Kazimierz Kutz, René Girard

Abstract

Director Kazimierz Kutz’s third instalment of the legendary Silesian Trilogy, The Beads of One Rosary, chronicles the destruction not only of the historic architecture of Giszowiec (Katowice), but also the tragic downfall of the ﬁlm’s protagonist, a retired coal miner and socialist labour hero, Karol Habryka. The following article examines his status as a non-mythical but not pure scapegoat ﬁgure and thus as a victim of the successful collective persecution carried out by the Communist regime in Poland. When studied in tandem with the Girardian theory of victimization, in particular, as applied to the biblical story of Job, Habryka’s death restores peace to a community fraught with discord, leading in turn to his deiﬁcation by the persecutors, a mechanistic process favoured by totalitarian systems in times of crisis.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Barge L., René Girard’s Categories of Scapegoats and Literature of the South, “Christianity and Literature” 2001, vol. 50, no. 2, pp. 247–268. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/014833310105000206 Google Scholar

Copik I., Ostatni bastion śląskości? Repetycje z twórczości Kazimierza Kutza (wokół ﬁlmu Paciorki Jednego Różańca), “Studia Śląskie” 2019, vol. 84, pp. 91–103. Google Scholar

Girard R., Job as Failed Scapegoat, [in:] The Voice from the Whirlwind: Interpreting “The Book of Job”, ed. by L.G. Perdue, W.C. Gilpin, Nashville 1992, pp. 185–207. Google Scholar

Girard R., Job: The Victim of His People, Stanford 1987. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503622999 Google Scholar

Girard R., The Scapegoat, transl. by Y. Freccero, Baltimore 1986. Google Scholar

Girard R., Rocha J.C. de Castro, Antonello P., Evolution and Conversion: Dialogues on the Origins of Culture, London 2017. Google Scholar

Klaußmann A.O., Oberschlesien Vor 55 Jahren Und Wie Ich Es Wiedersand, Berlin 1911. Google Scholar

Klich A., Cały ten Kutz: biografia niepokorna, Kraków 2019. Google Scholar

Kutz K., (director), Paciorki jednego różańca [film], 1979. Google Scholar

Kutz K., Scenariusze śląskie, Katowice 1995. Google Scholar

Lewandowski J.F., Historia Śląska według Kutza, Katowice 2004. Google Scholar

McKenna, Plato's Pharmacy, [in:] Violence and Diﬀerence: Girard, Derrida, and Deconstruction, Champaign 1992, pp. 27–39. Google Scholar

Mętrak K., Reduta Habryki: recenzja ﬁlmu Paciorki jednego różańca, reż. Kazimierz Kutz, Polska 1979, “Kino” 1980, vol. 176, pp. 13–16. Google Scholar

Simonides D., Paciorki śląskiego różańca: historyczno-kulturowe zaplecze śląskich filmów Kazimierza Kutza, [w:] Kutzowisko: o twórczości filmowej, teatralnej i telewizyjnej Kazimierza Kutza, ed. by A. Gwóźdź, Katowice 2000, pp. 68–97. Google Scholar

Toﬁlska J., Giszowiec: monograﬁa historyczna, Katowice 2016. Google Scholar