Presentation by Rodrigo Raez INTL 3111 Politics & Culture in Literature

Tadeusz Borowski was born in 1922 into the Polish community in Zhytomyr, Ukrainian SSR (today its known as Ukraine, back then it was known as the Soviet Union)

After secondary schooling, Borowski began studies at the underground Warshaw University He also became involved in several underground newspapers and started to publish his poems and short novels in the monthly Droga

In 1943 he was placed in the infamous Pawiak prison and then was transported to Auschwitz Forced into slave labor in extremely harsh conditions, Borowski later reflected on this experience in his writing. Especially, working on a railway ramp in Auschwitz

Since he witnessed Jews first being told to leave their personal property behind, and then get transferred directly from the trains to the gas chambers, most of his themes he focuses on were hopelessness and defeat versus joyful and victory He had real encounters with everyday problems in the camps

In one of this short stories Silence The author makes the point that silence is not all about defeat, loss, and sadness but rather saying silence as a state of being joyful because of victory and success. Since silence is viewed in different perspective. In the duration of the story the point of view before was altered into a positive one

His books are recognized as classics of Polish post-war literature and had much influence in Central European society. In 2002,Imre Kertesz, while receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature, stated that all his works were written because of his own fascination with Borowski's prose.

Borowski committed suicide at the age of 28 by breathing in gas from a gas stove on July 1, 1951. His wife gave birth to their daughter three days prior to his death.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/ 74446/Tadeusz-Borowski http://www.signandsight.com/features/1206. html http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/aug /25/brief-survey-short-story-tadeuszborowski http://fullreads.com/literature/this-way-forthe-gas-ladies-and-gentlemen/