REPREZENTACJE WOJNY RADZIECKO-AFGAŃSKIEJ W FILMACH ALEKSIEJA BAŁABANOWA ORAZ POWIEŚCI SWIETŁANY ALEKSIJEWICZ

IMAGES OF SOVIET-AFGHAN WARIN FILMS OF ALEKSEI BALABANOV AND NOVEL OF SVETLANA ALEXIEVICHS u m m a r yThe aim of the article is the interpretation of two films directed by Aleksei Balabanov,i.e. Cargo 200 and Stoker and the novel Boys in Zinc written by Svetlana Alexievich,from the point of view of representations of Soviet-Afghan war (1979–1989),contained in them. The methodological basis of the analysis constitutes the conceptof the allegorical moment, which was worked out by Adam Lowenstein in his bookShocking Representation: Historical Trauma, National Cinema, and the ModernHorror Film. It is assumed that one of the most important rules governing the selectedworks of art is providing the viewer with the shocking image to replace andimitate the shock of the traumatic boundary experience. In this context the prose ofthe Nobel prize winner serves as a kind of voice-over, the documentary allowing us tounderstand and emphasize the meaning of Balabanov’s posttraumatic films.