Samospalenia jako gest performatywny – przykład Jana Zajíca

Self-immolation as a performative gesture – the example of Jan Zajic Jan Zajíc is one of the lesser known (especially in Poland) Czechoslovakian human torches, who as a sign of political protest carried out an act of self-immolation. The eighteen year old student of an Industrial Highschool of Railways (Průmyslová a železničníškola) in Šumperk, inspired by Jan Palach's self-immolation, on February 25th 1969 covered himself in petroleum solvent and set on fire at the Wenceslas Square. Before that he also covered his body with a floor maintenance chemical agent and tried to drink hydrochloric acid not to scream in pain. Every act of self-immolation which has the character of a political protest constitutes a peculiar type of spectacle presented for a specifically selected audience, on a precisely prepared stage. However, for my discussion I have specifically selected an example most drastic, and from the theatrical perspective also one of the least successful, because I would like to consider the role of a performance in the context of instrumental suicides of an altruistic character.