Anna Krakus, University of Southern California
Police files tend to catalog a suspect’s crime. Police files in communist countries, however, go much further and document a suspect’s biography. This was the case in Polish police files where genres of biography and criminal surveillance blurred, turning the cop into a kind of literary author. Communist police files, therefore, told stories—not just about the factual and fictive biographical characteristics of a subject, but also intimate aspects of their personal lives and relationships. This live interview with Anna Krakus will delve into the police as author and the ways police files reflected literary elements that intersected with literary genres found in communist Poland.