Two Bodies of the Accused

Situated in Poland’s protracted reckoning with its socialist past, this article examines how cultural practices might fashion alternative, embodied forms of justice and history to counter the moralizing, nation-state centric transitional justice projects driven by right-wing groups. The article offers a close study of the experimental posttheater play Small Narration (Mała Narracja), performed by Wojtek Ziemilski about his grandfather, a popular cabaret singer who was accused of being a treacherous communist spy shortly before his death. Based on an analysis of choreography clips and personal stories shared on stage and conversations with Ziemilski and other family members implicated by the accusation, this article explores the power of art to “flesh out” the tensions and struggles underlying the making of sovereign body politic and articulate alternative forms of knowing and feeling that challenge right-wing sovereignty politics

Aesthetics · Communism · Political science · Politics · Eastern European Communism and Reforms · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Law · Philosophy · Polish-Jewish Holocaust Memory Studies