Nobody’s Calling for Me. Hen’s Founding Scene

The article analyzes a scene that recurs in the works of Józef Hen, irrespective of their genre:a commission scene. It fi rst appears in the story Dokument [Document], included in the fi ctionalizedreportage Kijów, Taszkient, Berlin: dzieje włóczęgi [Kiev, Tashkent, Berlin: The Story of a Vagabond].Later, Hen weaves it into the novel Nikt nie woła [Nobody’s calling], and with various echoesthe scene also recurs in his diaries. The commission scene functions as a metaphor for personal fateand an unhealed wound, and ultimately a painful symbol of repulsion. The analysis of its iterationsenables a better understanding of the writer’s work.