La Bienveillance de la critique polonaise: The Polish Reception of Jonathan Littell’s The Kindly Ones

Focusing on those arguments which polemicize with the criticism directed at Littell’s novel in the West and which can illuminate our understanding of this complex text Helena Duffy’s article offers a survey of Polish reactions to The Kindly Ones. Following one of the critics, Duffy posits abjection as the force behind both Aue’s matricide and the ‘Final Solution as well as a possible explanation of some of the novel’s puzzling elements (e.g. the protagonist’s implausibility). Finally, while speculating about the possible reasons for an overwhelmingly positive reception of Littell’s novel in Poland, Duffy places such a unanimous acclaim in the context of the Poles’ recent coming to terms with the uncomfortable issue of their role in the Holocaust.