Full Details

Thursday, April 18

The Stories Polish Secret Police Files Tell Us
Time:
12:00 pm to 1:30 pm
Presenter:
Anna Krakus
Location:
4130 Wesley W. Posvar Hall
Sponsored by:
Center for Russian East European and Eurasian Studies along with Department of History and Department of Political Science
Contact:
Sera Passerini
Contact Phone:
4126487407
Contact Email:
smp125@pitt.edu

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.