Childhood in a Writer’s Biography: The Case of Bruno Schulz

Abstract

The author considers childhood as an element of a writer’s biography, connected with the rest of his or her life in a complicated way. Under this approach, recounting the story of the writer’s childhood is the biographer’s duty, which he or she – striving to show the ‘truth’ – imposes on him- or herself, but does not necessarily fulfil. Biographers omit or reduce childhood for cultural reasons, based on the adopted convention, because of their own convictions, or simply due to the lack of sources. The author challenges all these reasons, arguing for the importance of childhood as a phase of human life.