Discourses of Lead and Silicosis (Based on Fictional Literature and Literary Documents about the Metallurgical Industry)

Abstract

While analyzing the discourse on silicosis and lead in the novels Hutnik by Artur Gruszecki and My Lead Girl, kneel on knee Marta Fox’s and in the reports on Lead Children. The forgotten epidemic of Michał Jędryka and Potosí. The Mountain That Eats People by Ander Izagirre, I am trying to prove the existence of two main discourses of industrial disease in Polish culture in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries (Potosí acts as a supplement here). One of them is based on the romantic aesthetics of melancholy, the other – activates the vitalistic forms of female rebellion. Both discourses accompany a critical reflection on modernity, and tracing their development makes it possible to understand that the image of the disease in the mining and metallurgical environment is related to other social problems (such as violence against women) – as an intervention in them or abandonment of change.