Prospero i Kurz w lustrze pamięci

Abstract

In this article – based on selected examples and with no certainty that they have been aptly chosen – I would like to point out and make a preliminary analysis of certain positions in Polish public discourse which currently display striking elements of transference in the sense of Dominick LaCapra’s meaning of the term. They reverberate with reflections of Polish imagined community’s experiences from the Occupation period. In this description, I shall rely on the classic categorisation introduced by Raul Hilberg, successively discussing the identification of subjects with the positions of perpetrator, victim and witness.

Keywords

• transference in historical studies and in public memory
• symbolic language of the Polish footbal teams banners and slogans
• victims, perpetrators and bystanders in Polish public discourse of the second decade of the 21st century
• postmemory
• historical policy