The Pocket Knife of Moses. On the Marrano Homotheology in Julian Stryjkowski

The paper deals with a variety of ways in which the phenomenon of Marranism can be perceived as being at play within the work of the Polish-Jewish writer Julian Stryjkowski. First, the author discusses Stryjkowski’s explicit references to Marranism in a novel and two short stories where this historical phenomenon becomes a   point of reference for a reflection upon contemporary Jewish condition. Then, by means of a close reading of the first chapter of Stryjkowski’s first novel (Voices in the Dark), the author shows a deeper, implicit and metaphorical understanding of “Marranism”: this time the term would refer to the disguised presence of the  homosexual desire within  the framework of the traditional Jewish life. The author points to the complex relation between homosexuality and the transgressive lure of Christianity within Stryjkowski’s work, as well as to the ways in which the Frankist heresy can be seen as offering a historical precedence and context for Stryjkowski’s ‘homotheology’. Finally, the third and most comprehensive understanding of Marranism is presented. This time the term refers to the fragile identity of the Polish-Jewish writer himself, which precisely due to its fractured nature enables the writer to capture a whole universe of tensions within the Jewish world and the complex dialectics of heretical homotheology.

The paper deals with a variety of ways in which the phenomenon of Marranism can be perceived as being at play within the work of the Polish-Jewish writer Julian Stryjkowski. First, the author discusses Stryjkowski’s explicit references to Marranism in a novel and two short stories where this historical phenomenon becomes a   point of reference for a reflection upon contemporary Jewish condition. Then, by means of a close reading of the first chapter of Stryjkowski’s first novel (Voices in the Dark), the author shows a deeper, implicit and metaphorical understanding of “Marranism”: this time the term would refer to the disguised presence of the  homosexual desire within  the framework of the traditional Jewish life. The author points to the complex relation between homosexuality and the transgressive lure of Christianity within Stryjkowski’s work, as well as to the ways in which the Frankist heresy can be seen as offering a historical precedence and context for Stryjkowski’s ‘homotheology’. Finally, the third and most comprehensive understanding of Marranism is presented. This time the term refers to the fragile identity of the Polish-Jewish writer himself, which precisely due to its fractured nature enables the writer to capture a whole universe of tensions within the Jewish world and the complex dialectics of heretical homotheology.