The Afterlife Deceived. Driving Volga Through Aphasia by Karolina Wiktor as a „Liberary” Journey Through the Land of Decline

The author of the text analyses the book by Karolina Wiktor Driving Volga Through Aphasia, a specific
diary of journey that the writer takes through “the land of Aphasia” (the name given to a collection of language
disorders caused by brain damage). The author tries to focus on the interpretation of the narrator’s
experiences in his actual entering into “afterlife” which means here the inability to communicate with the
outer world. The objective is to show the way in which people suffering from aphasia perceive the reality
and — on the other hand — to notice how the new writing forms (liberature) give the chance to shape
the reflection of that reality. The interpretation of the work discerns the variety of aesthetic categories seen
in post-modern categories: from classical tragedy (the position of the author and the lyrical subject) to irony
balancing on the verge of ugliness (artistically refined “liberary” form of the text).