What is depicted in a portrait of a woman terrorist?

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyse the psychological conditioning involved in the image-creation of Kora, a Polish female suicide bomber of the 1905 Revolution, as presented in Andrzej Strug’s novel Portrait. The female terrorist strongly declared her will to sacrifice her life for national and social ideals. Reference to Polish romantic mythology, in particular to the topos of crazy hero, formed a basis for idealising her by the artist, who volunteered to portray her. His ambition was to create an icon of  a “terrorist saint”, which was to reflect the spiritual perfection of the heroine as well as have the power of a “miraculous image”. Using the psychoanalytic tools, in particular those rooted in the theories of Hanna Segal and Julia Kristeva, the conscious and subconscious motivations of both the terrorist and artist are revealed. It allowed the recognition of the reasons behind the artist’s inability to create the portrait: defence mechanisms, such as splitting and defence fantasies, which made it impossible for him to confront the ambivalence and ambiguity of Kora, negatively affecting his ability to create a portrait of the terrorist.