“The past fixed into photos”: Family Photographs from the Archives of Maria and Edmund Wierciński
Anna Chojnacka
pamietnik.teatralny@gmail.comInstitute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5174-4155
Flader-Rzeszowska Flader-Rzeszowska
Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4110-9788
Abstract
This article discusses family photographs from the archives of Maria and Edmund Wierciński. Drawing on geopoetics, which explores autobiographical places in literature, the authors identify the sites present in the protagonists’ biographies, captured in photographs, mentioned in memoirs, notes, and letters. Małgorzata Czermińska’s understanding of life phases (childhood, youth, maturity, old age) is applied to the biographies of the two artists. The authors focus on Żupliki, which was Edmund’s family estate, and Warsaw, Maria’s hometown. They establish which phases in the life of the Wiercińskis, as well as their daughter Ewa and Edmund’s father Mieczysław, were associated with these points on the map and discuss their significance. They present the Wiercińskis’ autobiographical photo album—incomplete but important.
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Keywords:
Maria Wiercińska, Edmund Wierciński, Żupliki, Warsaw, family photographs, geopoetics, phases of lifeReferences
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Authors
Anna Chojnackapamietnik.teatralny@gmail.com
Institute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5174-4155
ANNA CHOJNACKA – assistant professor at the Department of Theatre History and Theory at the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Theatre historian, documentalist, editor and publisher (including the writings and correspondence of Leon Schiller and Edmund Wierciński). She specialises in the history of Polish theatre in the 20th century, particularly the biographies of artists in the interwar period and in the People's Republic of Poland in a social and political context.
Authors
Flader-Rzeszowska Flader-RzeszowskaCardinal Stefan Wyszyński University Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4110-9788
KATARZYNA FLADER-RZESZOWSKA – professor at the Department of Cultural and Artistic Communication at Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University. Theatre historian, lecturer in Journalism and Social Communication at UKSW and at the Aleksander Zelwerowicz Theatre Academy in Warsaw, branch in Białystok. She specialises in the history of 20th-century Polish theatre and current theatre life.
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