Of Elephants and Toothaches: Ethics, Politics, and Religion in Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Decalogue

This collection is the first to offer a genuinely interdisciplinary approach to Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Decalogue, a ten-film cycle of modern tales that touch on the ethical dilemmas of the Ten Commandments. The cycle’s deft handling of moral ambiguity and inventive technique established Kieślowski as a major international director.

Kieślowski once said, ＂Both the deep believer and the habitual skeptic experience toothaches in exactly the same way.＂ Of Elephants and Toothaches takes seriously the range of thought, from theological to skeptical, condensed in the cycle’s quite human tales. Bringing together scholars of film, philosophy, literature, and several religions, the volume ranges from individual responsibility, to religion in modernity, to familial bonds, to human desire and material greed. It explores Kieślowski’s cycle as it relentlessly solicits an ethical response that stimulates both inner disquiet and interpersonal dialogue.

Eva Badowska watched the Decalogue when it was first screened on Polish TV. She graduated from the University of Sussex (UK) and received her Ph.D. from Cornell University. She is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Fordham University. Her writing focuses on nineteenth-century British literature and culture, critical theory, as well as contemporary Polish and Eastern European culture. Her articles have appeared in PMLA, Parnassus, The Psychoanalytic Review, and other venues.

Francesca Parmeggiani graduated from the University of Bologna (Italy) and received her Ph.D. from Indiana University, Bloomington. She is Associate Professor of Italian and Comparative Literature at Fordham University. Her research focuses on modern Italian literature, women’s writing, and cinema. She is the author of Lo spessore della letteratura, on the fictional adaptations of Scriptures by Italian writers in the 1960’s and 1970’s, and co-editor of the essay collection, Forme, volti e linguaggi della violenza nella cultura italiana, on the representation of violence in Italian culture. Her articles have appeared in Annali d’Italianistica, Cahiers d’etudes italiennes, Italica, Italianistica, and Romance Languages, among other venues.