Almost Kajzar

The article is a review of Marcin Kościelniak’s book on Helmut Kajzar’s drama and theatre. The monograph, although based on vast archival research, is meant as a highly subjective and selective guide through Kajzar’s oeuvre and as a portrait of an artist as a “cultural hermaphrodite”. The methodological tools chosen by Kościelniak – psychoanalysis, queer theory, poststructuralism – prove to be effective within the implemented mode of reading, although sometimes they become more important than Kajzar’s own work. Kościelniak wants to read Kajzar’s text from the cultural perspective but at the same time he neglects the local and historical context of his writing. Nevertheless, the book offers quite a persuasive and interesting picture of Kajzar’s drama and theatrical practice.

The article is a review of Marcin Kościelniak’s book on Helmut Kajzar’s drama and theatre. The monograph, although based on vast archival research, is meant as a highly subjective and selective guide through Kajzar’s oeuvre and as a portrait of an artist as a “cultural hermaphrodite”. The methodological tools chosen by Kościelniak – psychoanalysis, queer theory, poststructuralism – prove to be effective within the implemented mode of reading, although sometimes they become more important than Kajzar’s own work. Kościelniak wants to read Kajzar’s text from the cultural perspective but at the same time he neglects the local and historical context of his writing. Nevertheless, the book offers quite a persuasive and interesting picture of Kajzar’s drama and theatrical practice.