"About the city, which is no longer there" : Wrocław in the crime novels by Marek Krajewski

The city can be seen from many different perspectives. Sometimes, the city itself forms a perspective, a kind of prism that allows you to observe the scene. This is one of the reasons why this approach is such a popular literary motive. In literature a city usually plays various roles. It can be a theatre, providing a stage for everything that is happening. Among urban spaces and buildings, a vivid action of literary creation takes place. Its characters emerge from the city, and the city is what they are deeply connected with. The identity of a city pervades the identities of its inhabitants.Marek Krajewski is the author of the so-called "criminal theatrology" - a kind of novel whose action takes place in the former-day Wrocław. The typical description of the novel's Breslau is based on old documents and maps - the former names of streets and places are brought up to strengthen the atmosphere of days that have passed. Still, this picture harmonizes well with the usual convention of a criminal novel. Breslau by Krajewski is a dirty and very dark city. Mysterious places and dreary recesses are all-present, because the genre cannot do without them. Therefore, in the literary presentation of the former-day Wrocław one can still find the truth, although it is mixed with stereotypes typical of this specific literary genre