“Not as a guest, not as an intruder, not as a homeowner, I am like a ghost…:” Psychotopographies of memory in Zygmunt Haupt’s short stories

Abstract

This article analyzes the relations between space and the subject (i.e., the configuration composed of the character’s I, the protagonist’s, I and the narrator’s I) in two short stories by Zygmunt Haupt, namely “Gołębie z placu Teodora” [Pigeons from Theodor’s Square] and “O Stefci, o Chaimie Immerglücku i o scytyjskich bransoletkach” [About Stefcia, Chaim Immerglück and Scythian bracelets]. The author draws on Victoria Nelson’s concept of psychotopography – it is a dynamic projection of subjective experiences, memories, and fantasies onto the space of the represented world and at the same time a system of influences and interactions that connect the literary I with the external space. Psychotopographic metaphors often refer to traumatic, repressed or (anamnestic) inaccessible memories.