Dying and death at war – concentration zone: the place of (special) dying
Abstract
The question about what has been left by the past in the space, that we can
consume or not in the 21st century is actually fiction in people’s mind. There is nothing
left to remember, even memories on concentrations are nowadays like monument to
those, who must live with that memories every day. Cultural history of death in the
period of 18th-21st century had many ‘’special’’ places in war time, where people died in
concentration zone. For rest of others who had “lucky” and have no experiences like
that, is this something that could represent a fiction. But in reality it is far away from
fiction. The history is regresus infinitum. Terror(ism) exists, lives in daily life and
consist a part of daily news. “This part” is often described in the books, mostly by author
experience. Terrorism in literature can be described as sexual terror, gender terror,
nation terror etc. One of them is also terror(ism) at concentration camps, written by
author’s memories. There is no time that could be called dogma, because we do not
know the answer to the question how is life given (or not) to somebody and there is no
key to resolve this mystery. Also we can’t judge to whom life belongs and who doesn’t
deserved to live. McHale’s concepts of theory are putting questions into field of
metafiction and postmodernism, but there are concepts about ontological insecurity in
novels, written by an author who can understand the military zones and concentration
camps. We can’t say that there is any meaning of this understanding. (We can’t say that
this is a meaningful understanding). Meaning of non-sense, unreasonable facts which
have been done during the Second World War and also in the nineties in the Balkans to
the innocent people, are placed in time, when the “great stories” already have been told
and when the ontological insecurity is not a new object of discussions in the field of
philosophers. Nowadays, the so-called “great stories” can’t be re-told with the same
effects. But there is the question, where and when we lost or left the spatial and
temporal alternatives. The literature of the world known Slovenian author - Boris
Pahor can give one point of the view with his novels, written mostly from his
experience in the concentration camps, ghettos, occupied territories, frontiers in Africa,
problems with passing borders etc., and his critical, objective and subjective point of
view on the problematical relations, made by people. My research will be based on
analyzing his literature, which gives, in some point of view, the answers to McHale’s
theory, and makes comparative (open) conclusions. Comparative literature can show
the line very clearly (and with that also the answer to McHale’s and Bataille’s theory)
with Pahor’s character(s) (i.e.: the individual men, everymen nowadays), which show
that not human nor zones aren’t changed more than sixty years later. Today we almost
can’t distinguish fiction from reality, because most of the things which were fiction in
the past (space and time), became a reality in the modern world. But the terrorism is
still alive. With that we also come to the question about reality of our realistic gestures,
their meanings and point of view what means living dying in the modern world.
Keywords
death, dying, camp, crematorium, Boris Pahor.