„Deformacje pamięci wstecznej”. Nawroty, nawracania i konwersje w Nawróceniu Andrzeja Kuśniewicza

This article is devoted to Nawrócenie [Conversion/Recurrence], the last novel of Andrzej Kuśniewicz. The author proposes an interpretation putting special emphasis on the ambiguous and polysemic eponymous category, which is referred to as: the literary topos of (distorted) memory and fantasmatic re-turn into the past; recurrence as an autofictional gesture of processing that past in the realm of literary speculation; finally – a conversion, which may be understood twofold – as a process of not only religious but also ethical transformation or even re-creation of the subject, or as a deep renegotiation of the subject’s identity, given that this very subject is internally conflicted and incoherent. Analyzed in the article are overt and hidden autobiographical motifs in the novel, especially those connected to Kuśniewicz’s complicated stance towards philo- and anti-Semitism as well as (non)remembrance of the Shoah. The main concepts and tools used in the discussion are drawn from discourses of psychoanalysis and philosophy of history (especially Eelco Runia’s notions of “metonymy” and “presence”).