On the Need for <i>Narrations of the Shoah</i> in Contemporary Humanities. A New Opening

Abstract

The article aims at presenting the new formula of <i>Narrations of the Shoah</i>, Polish academic journal. The idea behind the journal is linked to the conviction that the Holocaust isthe zero point of Polish culture and its conceptualisation, and broadly understood narrations are a necessary medium to recognise and depict complications resulting from this issue. This journal appears to be symptomatic of the state of research on the Shoah (and other genocides) in Poland; <i>Narrations of the Shoah</i> simultaneously probes and delineates the perspectives of its development. The formula of the journal responds to the challenges of contemporary humanities and fills the gap in Polish studies on the Shoah. <i>Narrations of the Shoah</i> is a <i>sui generis</i> laboratory of new methodologies, an interdisciplinary forum of cutting-edge ideas, but it also provides a continuation of the best practices of traditional philology and literary studies. Announced in the title of this article, the journal’s new opening will primarily consist in broadening its field of interest to include such issues as narrations of genocides other tham the Holocaust or the relation between Holocaust studies and ecocriticism, especially the notion of the Anthropocene.