Orphans and objects. Materiality of longing and anxiety in Bronka Nowicka’s "To Feed the Stone"

Michał Kisiel


Jan Dlugosz University in Częstochowa (Częstochowa) (Poland)

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyse how longing emanates through the interconnections of intimacy and materiality in Bronka Nowicka’s To Feed the Stone. In the light of selected materialist theories and psychoanalysis, I trace how the recurring figure of a comb exhibits Thing-Power, creating new material and semiotic connections. It disturbs the seemingly fixed dyads of presence/absence, present/past, passivity/activity, or life/death. Moreover, it marks the work of longing and anxiety as this object accompanies the child-narrator during her journey in search of touch through an uncanny world.


Keywords:

Bronka Nowicka, materiality, longing, intimacy, anxiety

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Published
2023-12-29

Cited by

Kisiel, M. (2023). Orphans and objects. Materiality of longing and anxiety in Bronka Nowicka’s "To Feed the Stone". Transfer. Reception Studies, 8, 111–123. https://doi.org/10.16926/trs.2023.08.16

Authors

Michał Kisiel 

Jan Dlugosz University in Częstochowa (Częstochowa) Poland

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