Ambiguous Endeavours

This dissertation examines how melodrama, defined as a complex, distinctly
modern and transnational mode of storytelling, has influenced
the area of Polish Holocaust representation since the late 1970s till the
present. Within a methodological frame that seeks to combine textual
and contextual analysis, the study poses a set of questions that can
be asked of the melodramatic mode"s narrative structures and stylistic
devices, their signifying and functionality, in literature and film. Other
key issues considered include the melodramatic narratives" ability to
evolve and adapt during the cultural transformation of late-communism
(the 1970s and 1980s) and post-communism (after 1989), and the
circumstances accompanying melodrama"s rise to prominence within
this particular field. I argue that the increased visibility and popularity of
melodramatic narratives must be seen in relation to the long-standing
associations between Polish Holocaust representation and forms of
expression linked to high modernism and the avant-garde, but also as
indicative of fundamental changes in post-communist culture.