The Politics of Jewish Absence in Contemporary Poland

Datos Bibliográficos

ID10073816
AutoresGeneviève Zubrzycki (University of Michigan, autor de correspondencia)
Año2016
Volumen52
Número2
Páginas250-277
Fecha de publicación2016-11-24
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Contemporary History (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0022-0094 • E-ISSN: 1461-7250
EditorialSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0022009416664020
OpenAlexW2555093324
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas10

Since the early 2000s, Polish society has undergone a significant ‘mnemonic awakening’; rediscovering traces of past Jewish presence in that country, critically examining the process of eradication of Jewish life and its subsequent erasure from collective memory, and attempting to recover some aspects of the Polish-Jewish past. Based on archival and ethnographic data, this article analyzes different modes of mnemonic practices that directly engage with Jewish absence. I show that for Jewish absence to even be noticed by contemporary Poles and potentially experienced by them as a void that deserves to be (re)filled, past Jewish presence is being brought back to life. I argue that this mnemonic creation of absence is part of a broader political project to expand Polish national identity beyond the narrow confines of Catholicism

Aesthetics · Anti-Zionism · Archaeology · Art · Collective memory · Ethnography · Haskalah · Identity (music · Jewish identity · Jewish studies · Judaism · Mnemonic · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Anthropology · Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics · History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Jewish Identity and Society · Law · Psychology