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| Author | Olga Tokarczuk |
|---|---|
| Language | Polish |
| Publisher | PIW |
Publication date | 1995 |
| Publication place | Poland |
| Pages | 206 pages |
| ISBN | 8306024443 |
| OCLC | 751189316 |
E.E. is a 1995psychological novel by the Polish authorOlga Tokarczuk.[1] Set inWrocław at the turn of the 20th century, it tells the story of a teenaged Erna Eltzer, who suddenly gains paranormal skills and is used as a medium. The novel draws fromCarl Jung's doctoral dissertationOn the Psychology and Pathology of So-Called Occult Phenomena.
E.E. is a psychological novel[2]: 48 with an omniscientnarrator,[3]: 55 set in Wrocław at the beginning of the 20th century.[4]: 55 The main character is Erna Eltzer, the eponymous E.E.,[4]: 55 who belongs to the Polish-German bourgeoisie.[5][3]: 57 The novel tells the story of Erna undergoing puberty,[4]: 69 when she suddenly gains paranormal skills.[4]: 57 Thanks to her new abilities, she begins to be perceived as someone special compared to her siblings, which helps her gain the interest of her mother,[4]: 58 who is everything to her.[4]: 57 Erna's mother, an unfulfilled actress who does not enjoy being a housewife,[3]: 57 uses her daughter as amedium to attract attention in her milieu.[3]: 57 [4]: 183 With the interest generated by her psychic abilities, Erna loses her agency[4]: 184 [3]: 58 and turns into a medical case under the alias "E.E.", an object of doctors' examinations.[3]: 58 Her only means of escaping the situation are walks in the park and contact with nature.[4]: 184
The novel was based on elements ofCarl Jung's doctoral dissertation entitledOn the Psychology and Pathology of So-Called Occult Phenomena. Characterization of the heroine of E.E. alludes to a patient called "S.W.", while the plot of the novel draws elements of the dissertation. Jung's scientific distance to the object of his study is noticeable in the notes of one of the novel's characters, the youngpsychoanalyst Artur Schatzmann,[2]: 48 who is a parody of Jung himself.[2]: 49
According toRafał Grupiński andIzolda Kiec [pl], the novel is aparable of human fate which speaks of unfulfillment and dreams.[6] In the opinion ofBrigitta Helbig-Mischewski [de], the novel describes a "woman's tragedy of lacking agency".[3]: 59 Katarzyna Kantner notes that Tokarczuk skillfully uses the convention of the psychological novel, transforming it into her own spin on the genre.[2]: 48 She also draws attention to the fact thatE.E. is the first novel by the author in which she explores the relationship between the body and the mind.[2]: 50
The book has been translated into Danish,[7] Norwegian,[8] Macedonian,[9] Ukrainian[10] and Estonian.[11]
In 1998, the Polish public service broadcasterTelewizja Polska produced a TV play adaptation under the same title, directed by Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz. The role of Erna Eltzner was played byAgata Buzek.[12] Tokarczuk co-wrote the screenplay.[12][13]
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