NPR's Scott Simon and published author Lily Tuck discussed Tuck's new book about Czeslawa Kwoka. Their interview was broadcast Saturday, December 14, 2024.
Tuck, again, has just published a book about Czeslawa Kwoka.
Kwoka was a child Polish victim of Nazism. Nazis murdered Kwoka in Auschwitz.
Kwoka was a child Polish victim of Nazism. Nazis murdered Kwoka in Auschwitz.
Both Scott Simon and Lily tuck repeatedly mispronounced Czeslawa Kwoka's name.
As I listened to the interview, I was astounded. How does someone publish a book about a girl, how does NPR conduct an interview about this girl, and never take the twenty seconds of Google search to learn how to pronounce the murdered girl's name?
ches WAFF a
As I listened to the interview, I was astounded. How does someone publish a book about a girl, how does NPR conduct an interview about this girl, and never take the twenty seconds of Google search to learn how to pronounce the murdered girl's name?
ches WAFF a
KWOK a
Not difficult.
NPR interview is here.
Not difficult.
NPR interview is here.
I would not be surprised if this mispronunciation reflects a widespread lack of seriousness in matters related to Poles and Poland.
ReplyDeleteI would not have known the name was mispronounced if you hadn't spotted it Danusha. So, on the negative side, this may well demonstrate that Poles/Polonians are still on the "unter" page, and so it doesn't really matter if our names are pronounced correctly or not.
ReplyDeleteBut, on the other hand, it is amazing to see the media acknowledging Polish suffering during WW2. Aren't we usually blamed for it all these days - Professor Jan Gross style?
So to an extent this may signal a change in the Zeigeist.
The most touching thing about this photograph, to me, is that the little soul is trying to be brave and keep it together in the nightmare she is living through.
Perhaps Poles and other people with any Polish connections will feel that shining a light on what non-Jewish Polish citizens went through during WWII is a positive development. I haven't read this book, but, judging by the various reviews, it seems that writer Lily Tuck has done her research and, given that so little information is available about Czesława Kwoka herself, the author's intention seems to have been to honour the memory of an individual who might otherwise have slipped into obscurity. In honouring one single person, the author clearly wants to, by extension, pay tribute to all the thousands of others who died in anonymity. There is obviously some merit in an author's impulse to create an entire person's life when the facts available are so few, but in this case, the approach raises a fundamental issue.
ReplyDeleteWhereas Diane Ackerman, author of 'The Zookeeper's Wife', kept scrupulously to the known facts of Antonina Żabińska's life and wartime experiences, basing her account on Żabińska's diaries, Lily Tuck (judging by the reviews I've read) has imagined parts of Kwoka's early life. I wouldn't want to be ungracious to a writer who was moved enough by three photographs to try to restore humanity to a person who was totally dehumanized, but the question of people mispronouncing a Polish name is, to me, not as problematic as the idea of fictionalizing the story of a real person, however noble the author's intention.
" but the question of people mispronouncing a Polish name is, to me, not as problematic "
DeleteI find this comment so astounding it's hard to know how to respond to it and avoid alienating the comment's author.
No, a woman taking it upon herself to write a book about a real person and never having the curiosity or integrity to learn how to pronounce that person's name is not within the bounds of writerly responsibility.
Further, to repeatedly substitute an invented pronunciation for that name to be broadcast via an important news source, and for that news source not to fact check that, is also a gross violation of journalistic responsibility.
You may not realize this because you've never written a book or been a professional journalist. I know you are a writer so I can't imagine why you said what you said.
This is a major problem. It's sad that anyone is so unaware of what is requited of writers and of journalists that they don't see that.
I didn’t say the mispronunciation wasn’t problematic at all. It was definitely sloppy journalism and didn’t show enough respect for the identity of the subject of the book. I simply see more of a problem with the fact that the author chose to invent an entirely fictitious back story for a person who was very real, but who is no longer able to correct the record.
ReplyDeleteI may not have been a professional journalist, by the way, but I’ve had articles published here and there: The Krakow Post, the (London) Tydzien Polski, and I also have a couple of books on Amazon. Your readers are invited to check my Blogger profile.
Sending everyone best wishes for Christmas. Ho ho ho.
Michal Karski
Michal I KNOW you are a published writer. I think I mentioned that in my post! I respect your writing! I have posted guest blogs by you!
DeleteMichal, please understand that in publishing Bieganski, in speaking about it publicly, including in media, and in simply being a university professor, I am confident that an inability to pronounce the name of the person about whom you are writing, and a lack of curiosity about that, and going on air with mispronunciation, is HUGE.
In your post you indicated that you don't see it as a problem or as a problem worth mentioning, or a lesser problem.
Forgive me but that is just wrong.
Imagine writing a book about Elie Wiesel and going on air and giving his name a bizarre totally wrong pronunciation. It would ... there would be consequences and the author and the media that participated in that would never live it down.
Apparently, according to some of the book reviews I've read, Lily Tuck invents an abusive father in the novel's backstory. She does make clear that this is all fiction (and also wants to emphasize that non-Jewish Poles were victims of the Nazis)
ReplyDeletehttps://www.kmuw.org/podcast/marginalia/2024-12-18/lily-tuck-on-her-new-novel-the-rest-is-memory
but this is one of the major problems which I see in fictionalizing the life of a real person. This Wikipedia entry says that nothing is known about the father and that the mother was widowed.
"Dzieje ojca Czesławy nie są znane. Wedle relacji Eugeniusza Piróga Katarzyna była wdową i wychowywała córkę samotnie[7]."
https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czes%C5%82awa_Kwoka#:~:text=Ojciec%20mia%C5%82%20na%20imi%C4%99%20Pawe%C5%82,wdow%C4%85%20i%20wychowywa%C5%82a%20c%C3%B3rk%C4%99%20samotnie.
thank you for this information. It does not surprise me.
Delete