Bal wdów i wdowców Mariana Pankowskiego w perspektywie antropologii śmierci

Abstract

The subject of this paper is the recent novel by Marian Pankowski, Widows and Widowers' Ball, viewed in the light of the 20* century French anthropology of death. The article also shows the thematic changes which occurred in the prose of the author of Matuga. The thanatological analysis concentrates on the contacts of the main character with women, which at the same time are a form of taming the idea of, or preparing oneself to, death, through the motif of seduction, realized both on the realistic and symbolic planes. The paper also shows the thematic parallel with Ingmar Bergman’s film, The Seventh Seal.