Matka, która odeszła, i rzeczy, które zostały. Poetyka żałoby w "Rzeczach, których nie wyrzuciłem" Marcina Wichy

The Mother Gone and the Things Left Behind: Mourning Poetry in Marcin Wicha’s "Rzeczy, których nie wyrzuciłem" The article constitutes an analysis of funeral narration in Rzeczy, których nie wyrzuciłem by Marcin Wicha. Its aim is to explore the mourning discourse to comprehend the emotional and ethical impulse behind writing about the deceased mother, as well as to demonstrate how language grapples with the inexpressible experience of death.Wicha seeks within the textual fabric an opportunity to prolong the presence of the mother among the living and to understand his own identity. The author constructs a portrait of the mother by examining the items left behind by the deceased. These items facilitate a profound analysis of familial relationships and serve as a springboard for contemplations on the essence of memory and one’s roots. They concurrently become pillars of filial memory, allowing for the creation of a tender, intimate image of the Polish mother, the Jewish mother, as complex as a puzzle in a Saturday newspaper.The mother’s belongings – books, notes, a sugar box – enable the son to traverse through time, awakening long-forgotten anecdotes. They lead to an understanding of the deceased’s past and her intricate character, facilitating an analysis of familial dynamics. The author’s scrutiny of these objects – cracks in existence – and the construction of micro-narratives based on them, prove to be the key to narrating the maternal experience of the world. Through attentive observation, the author deciphers the history encapsulated in matter, rendering objects a medium for dialogical and profound communication with both the past and oneself.However, Wicha’s things are not merely a reflection of individual history. As objects of memory, they also bear reminiscences of specific epochs. Through the description of various items, such as book covers from the home library, the author is able to narrate the entire post-war history of Poland – from the hardship of communism, through the bleak yet hopeful thaw, to the garish and shiny contemporaneity.The author also delves into the issue of language – a medium that enables the creation of a narrative about the deceased while simultaneously expropriating her, enclosing her within the dead structures of language. Wicha searches for words that will allow him to weave a tale about his mother, while simultaneously enabling the expression of the inexpressible – the experience of death.The article is a part of the master’s thesis entitled Bez matki. Poetyka żałoby w twórczości Miry Marcinów, Marka Bieńczyka i Marcina Wichy, written under the supervision of Prof. Dariusz Szczukowski at the University of Gdańsk.