Culturologist and Ethnologist. Areas of interest: anthropology of landscape, forced migration of German-speaking inhabitants of Poland and Czechoslovakia after 1945, study on things. Phot. by Leszek Zych / Polityka
The article aims at analyzing two war memorials, established after the Austro-Prussian War of 186... more The article aims at analyzing two war memorials, established after the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 in the Prussian cities of Köslin (now Koszalin) and Poznań, subsequently in the years 1867 and 1870. They commemorated the successes of Prussian armies in the battles of Hradec Králové and Náchod, as well as the fallen Prussian soldiers, often of Polish nationality. However, the reception of both monuments changed during the 19 th century. Both war memorials were perceived as "Prussian", or respectively "German", which led to their demise after the re-Polonization of both cities after 1918 (Poznań) and 1945 (Köslin/Koszalin). Thus, these war memorials constitute an interesting example of specific phenomena concerning treatment of sepulchral-military monuments, which defy general classification and theoretical concepts commonly accepted both at the cultural-historical and commemoration-historical level. Their specificity lies in the unusual degree of translocation, when soldiers of nationality "A" fell in country "B" for the interests of state "C", while a monument devoted to their memory was built in locality "D". Furthermore, the analyzed monuments represent a certain "monument utilitarianism", as their meaning was rewritten, and they were themselves destroyed and their parts secondarily used. The range of these factors, integrally connected with both memorials, then becomes an interesting subject of historical analysis, concerning the study of historical and collective memory.
Our aim is to introduce necroreverence as analytical category into the research on necropolises a... more Our aim is to introduce necroreverence as analytical category into the research on necropolises as particular spaces. The necroreverence, a cultural esteem for the dead, combines local and imported aesthetic-ideological elements and is reflected in space. Within the text, it is used in the context of cemeteries for Soviet soldiers in Central Europe. As case studies were chosen two necropolises: in Warsaw (Poland), and in Bratislava (Slovakia). The article draws on press and visual materials from 1950 to 2020 and field observations. Authors track the changes in functioning of the cemeteries to understand the transformation of significance attributed both to the necropolises and the fallen in relation to the inhabitants of both cities and the changing party responsible for the cemeteries.
The subject matter of this article is identity formation of new inhabitants of post-displacement ... more The subject matter of this article is identity formation of new inhabitants of post-displacement areas, which I analyse based on the example of Poland’s “Recovered Territories” after 1945 with the focus on its Pomeranian region. Inspired by Walter Benjamin’s remarks on the notion of history, the use of sources and cultural formation, I propose to consider the culture of the “Recovered Territories” as a culture of the remains of the Saturnine character, which results from the transference of guilt and responsibility outside of the realm of agency, and leads to the inability to intentionally build or maintain any whole. It is a culture that grows on differently understood vestiges, using detours and delays in its continuous movement, both in the literal and metaphorical sense. I argue that the identity of the new settlers was shaped by the remains of their culture(s) of origin, remains of the German cultures, as well as the propaganda of the “Recovered Territories” legitimising their incorporation into Poland.
Zwischen nationalen und transnationalen Erinnerungsnarrativen in Zentraleuropa, 2020
The paper addresses the question of identifying aesthetic means to
imagine and rethink the repre... more The paper addresses the question of identifying aesthetic means to
imagine and rethink the representations of the end of the Second World War
and the expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia in current Czech literature
by using Susan Sontag’s ideas on photography. Three novels were chosen for
the basis of analysis: Jakuba Katalpa’s Germans (2012), Alena Mornštajnová’s
Blind Map (2013) and Michal Přibáň’s Only Twice for Everything (2016). The study
focuses on ways of depicting the last period of the war and the following expul-
sion to prove that these methods of description can be analyzed by employing
Susan Sontag’s proposal of photograph analysis in On Photography (1977). It also
demonstrates that Czech writers’ aesthetic proposals are not only associated with
verbal, but also visual strategies as well.
East European Politics and Societies and Cultures, 2020
This article answers the question how the situation of incorporation of Central Pomerania, former... more This article answers the question how the situation of incorporation of Central Pomerania, formerly a German region, into Poland in 1945 affected the formation of its commemorative landscape. The author discusses how it had affected the erection of new monuments after 1945, and if the example of German Great War memorials, erected here after 1918, had an influence on new Polish commemorative practices. A “competition of memories” is used here as the analytical tool. It is understood as a phenomenon that occurs in areas where two cultures are superimposed on one another, so primary commemorations are copied, employing the structures of the existing memorials, to produce secondary commemorations. Through the analysis of the archival and fieldwork materials, the author examines the social practices of memory. The case studies are memorials recycled for commemorations connected to the Pomeranian Line and mythology of “recovery,” legitimising the incorporation of Central Pomerania into Poland.
Cmentarze i pomniki I wojny światowej po stuleciu. Stan badań i ochrony, 2019
Celem niniejszego artykułu jest prześledzenie, na jakie problemy napotyka badacz/ka pomników ku c... more Celem niniejszego artykułu jest prześledzenie, na jakie problemy napotyka badacz/ka pomników ku czci poległych i zaginionych w I wojnie światowej na terenie tzw. Ziem Odzyskanych i zaproponowanie sposobu kompleksowego ich badania.
Acta Universitatis Carolinae - Studia Territorialia, 2018
War memorials (in German, Kriegerdenkmäler) were built after World War I in almost every village ... more War memorials (in German, Kriegerdenkmäler) were built after World War I in almost every village and town in Czechoslovakia that had a German population, to commemorate those who had been killed in the war. After 1945, these memorials were either destroyed or recycled. The author shows how the new Czech inhabitants who replaced the traditional population of the borderlands coped with these memorials. Focusing her research on the Cheb and Mariánské Lázně regions, she considers the destruction of the monuments to be an example of managing a "dissonant heritage." Some of the monuments were demolished altogether; others were re-used for new purposes as parts of new objects. Applying Reinhart Koselleck's theory that war memorials serve the living more than they do the dead, by creating communal attitudes toward common social issues, the author analyzes patterns in the erection of German memorials of the Great War in the Czech lands. She also refers to Bernhard Böttcher's analysis of German war memorials in Czechoslovakia, which regards them as monuments commemorating a country which had ceased to exist. Her main thesis is that the "new life" given to war memorials after 1945 is connected to a new and different perspective among Czechs on World War I, to their hostile attitude towards the German heritage of Czechoslovakia, and to a different perception of memorials inherited from the past.
„Ziemie Odzyskane”. W poszukiwaniu nowych narracji, 2018
W artykule podjęta zostaje tematyka kulturowego recyclingu pomników ku czci poległych i zaginiony... more W artykule podjęta zostaje tematyka kulturowego recyclingu pomników ku czci poległych i zaginionych w I wojnie światowej na obszarze Pomorza Środkowego. Na użytek artykułu Pomorze Środkowe zostaje zdefiniowane jako obszar dawnego województwa koszalińskiego z lat 1950-1975. Autorka przedstawia historię tworzenia upamiętnień, jakimi były Kriegerdenkmäler oraz zarysowuje problem przerabiania ich po roku 1945 przez nowych osadników na lepiej znane elementy krajobrazu kulturowego. Wyróżnia dwie strategie, które nazywa kolejno (1) „strategią sygnałową”, polegającą na szybkim przerobieniu pomnika, który nie pełni następnie zakładanej przez wspólnotę funkcji, oraz (2) „adaptacyjną”, w której dochodzi do zmiany funkcji pomnika. Szczegółowa analiza zostaje przeprowadzona na studiach przypadku, jakimi są przerobione pomniki w miejscowościach Świeszyno (pow. koszaliński) i Sadkowo (pow. białogardzki). Artykuł został przygotowany na podstawie badań terenowych oraz archiwalnych.
This article concerns the writing strategies present in Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk’s works, especiall... more This article concerns the writing strategies present in Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk’s works, especially in The Czech Question. Firstly, the author shows the impact of the second edition of The Czech Question, published in 1908, on the discussion about the sense of Czech history. Secondly, she examines Masaryk’s writing strategies, showing to what extent they involve creating and, on the other hand, analysing Czech history.
This article is devoted to the inadequacy of the Polish and Czech terminology related to the disp... more This article is devoted to the inadequacy of the Polish and Czech terminology related to the displacement of German-speaking communities after 1945. Discussing the example of the terms “Sudety” and “pohraničí” (Borderlands), the author identifies the inadequacy of various equivalents of these concepts in Polish secondary literature. The adopted methodology makes it possible to demonstrate a particular historical entanglement of the term “Sudety” and its incompatibility with metadiscourse (the language of research). The terminological analysis is the starting point for describing the memory of the historical situation in the Czech pohraničí after 1945. The study analyses material collected during interviews with the residents of pohraničí, including their own reflections on terminological issues.
W artykule podjęta zostaje problematyka strategii pisania obecnych w dziele T. G. Masaryka, zwłas... more W artykule podjęta zostaje problematyka strategii pisania obecnych w dziele T. G. Masaryka, zwłaszcza w jego Czeskim pytaniu. Po pierwsze, autorka pokazuje jaki wpływ miało drugie wydanie Czeskiego pytania, opublikowane w 1908 roku, na dyskusję o sensie czeskiej historii. Po drugie, autorka analizuje strategie pisania Masaryka, pokazując, do jakiego stopnia chodzi w nim o kreację, a do jakiego o analizę czeskiej historii.
The author writes about the functioning of war memorials devoted to the German-speaking soldiers ... more The author writes about the functioning of war memorials devoted to the German-speaking soldiers killed in World War I (Kriegerdenkmäler) during the First Czechoslovak Republic period (1918–1938). The main subject is analysed based on case studies which allow to observe the Czech-German relations during this period. The paper examines the ways of functioning of the monuments in the Cheb Region. The principal object of analysis is the war memorial in Dolní Žandov. Here can be seen how the symbolic potential of both nationalities have intersected with each other.
The article sums up the author’s experiences resulting from a field research in the north-western... more The article sums up the author’s experiences resulting from a field research in the north-western part of the Suwałki Region. The object of the research was a study of the relations between Catholics and Evangelicals in the former Polish-Prussian borderland. On the basis of her interlocutors’ utterances the author gives a chronological presentation of Catholic-Evangelical relations from the interwar period up to the present, showing how they changed over time. The problem of perception of the Volkslist and the usage of the concept of Volksdeutsch by both denominational groups is also discussed. An essential part of the analysis is the author’s endeavor to understand the identification of ‘‘Evangelicality’’ with ‘‘Germanness’’ by Catholics. She notices an interesting phenomenon: the mode of talking about the denominational group as a whole differs from that of talking about its particular representatives.
The aim of this paper is to reconstruct the ways in which the Polish media describe Czechs and th... more The aim of this paper is to reconstruct the ways in which the Polish media describe Czechs and the Czech Republic. The author confronts this narration with the case of mass murder in Dobronín and other events happening after The Second World War, during the period of the almost omitted in Polish press and reportages, although very important and many times discussed in details in the Czech media, expulsion of Germans. The dominant tendency visible in the Polish media is to demistificate the history of Polish nation, but simultaneously they stereotypize and idealize the Czech nation’s history – showing it as a model. Poles write about Czechs omitting cases disrupting their coherent vision, which is significant especially in the present Polish press discourse. The author’s conclusion is that there is still need to find a new method of narrating tragic events in both nations’ history.
In her article, the author deals with the phantom presence of German-speaking inhabitants of Czec... more In her article, the author deals with the phantom presence of German-speaking inhabitants of Czechoslovakia after 1945. She bases her analysis on the documents of České zemské ústředí obcí, měst a okresů (Czech Central Union of Municipalities, cities and counties in Bohemia and Moravia – ZÚO), stored in the Czech National Archive in Prague. The author chooses two instances of correspondence between ZÚO and local institutions – the case of a hospital in Jičín and of a local administrative committee in Jablonec. Based on these two examples, the author looks into issues that came up in the wake of the resettlement of the German-speaking inhabitants of Czechoslovakia. It appears that these former inhabitants did not simply vanish from the public space. Using methods developed by the researchers into public bureaucracies, the author looks into the ways in which the presence of expelled Czech Germans remained visible in the public space and into how the Czechs dealt with that visibility. Furthermore, she gives an account of how the game of resence and non-presence of the displaced Germans is revealed in the sources. The central focus of her analysis is on interpretation of the material nature of the sources used. The author uses the term “phantom” to describe this multilayered (non-)presence of Czech Germans at the time.
The article aims at analyzing two war memorials, established after the Austro-Prussian War of 186... more The article aims at analyzing two war memorials, established after the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 in the Prussian cities of Köslin (now Koszalin) and Poznań, subsequently in the years 1867 and 1870. They commemorated the successes of Prussian armies in the battles of Hradec Králové and Náchod, as well as the fallen Prussian soldiers, often of Polish nationality. However, the reception of both monuments changed during the 19 th century. Both war memorials were perceived as "Prussian", or respectively "German", which led to their demise after the re-Polonization of both cities after 1918 (Poznań) and 1945 (Köslin/Koszalin). Thus, these war memorials constitute an interesting example of specific phenomena concerning treatment of sepulchral-military monuments, which defy general classification and theoretical concepts commonly accepted both at the cultural-historical and commemoration-historical level. Their specificity lies in the unusual degree of translocation, when soldiers of nationality "A" fell in country "B" for the interests of state "C", while a monument devoted to their memory was built in locality "D". Furthermore, the analyzed monuments represent a certain "monument utilitarianism", as their meaning was rewritten, and they were themselves destroyed and their parts secondarily used. The range of these factors, integrally connected with both memorials, then becomes an interesting subject of historical analysis, concerning the study of historical and collective memory.
Our aim is to introduce necroreverence as analytical category into the research on necropolises a... more Our aim is to introduce necroreverence as analytical category into the research on necropolises as particular spaces. The necroreverence, a cultural esteem for the dead, combines local and imported aesthetic-ideological elements and is reflected in space. Within the text, it is used in the context of cemeteries for Soviet soldiers in Central Europe. As case studies were chosen two necropolises: in Warsaw (Poland), and in Bratislava (Slovakia). The article draws on press and visual materials from 1950 to 2020 and field observations. Authors track the changes in functioning of the cemeteries to understand the transformation of significance attributed both to the necropolises and the fallen in relation to the inhabitants of both cities and the changing party responsible for the cemeteries.
The subject matter of this article is identity formation of new inhabitants of post-displacement ... more The subject matter of this article is identity formation of new inhabitants of post-displacement areas, which I analyse based on the example of Poland’s “Recovered Territories” after 1945 with the focus on its Pomeranian region. Inspired by Walter Benjamin’s remarks on the notion of history, the use of sources and cultural formation, I propose to consider the culture of the “Recovered Territories” as a culture of the remains of the Saturnine character, which results from the transference of guilt and responsibility outside of the realm of agency, and leads to the inability to intentionally build or maintain any whole. It is a culture that grows on differently understood vestiges, using detours and delays in its continuous movement, both in the literal and metaphorical sense. I argue that the identity of the new settlers was shaped by the remains of their culture(s) of origin, remains of the German cultures, as well as the propaganda of the “Recovered Territories” legitimising their incorporation into Poland.
Zwischen nationalen und transnationalen Erinnerungsnarrativen in Zentraleuropa, 2020
The paper addresses the question of identifying aesthetic means to
imagine and rethink the repre... more The paper addresses the question of identifying aesthetic means to
imagine and rethink the representations of the end of the Second World War
and the expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia in current Czech literature
by using Susan Sontag’s ideas on photography. Three novels were chosen for
the basis of analysis: Jakuba Katalpa’s Germans (2012), Alena Mornštajnová’s
Blind Map (2013) and Michal Přibáň’s Only Twice for Everything (2016). The study
focuses on ways of depicting the last period of the war and the following expul-
sion to prove that these methods of description can be analyzed by employing
Susan Sontag’s proposal of photograph analysis in On Photography (1977). It also
demonstrates that Czech writers’ aesthetic proposals are not only associated with
verbal, but also visual strategies as well.
East European Politics and Societies and Cultures, 2020
This article answers the question how the situation of incorporation of Central Pomerania, former... more This article answers the question how the situation of incorporation of Central Pomerania, formerly a German region, into Poland in 1945 affected the formation of its commemorative landscape. The author discusses how it had affected the erection of new monuments after 1945, and if the example of German Great War memorials, erected here after 1918, had an influence on new Polish commemorative practices. A “competition of memories” is used here as the analytical tool. It is understood as a phenomenon that occurs in areas where two cultures are superimposed on one another, so primary commemorations are copied, employing the structures of the existing memorials, to produce secondary commemorations. Through the analysis of the archival and fieldwork materials, the author examines the social practices of memory. The case studies are memorials recycled for commemorations connected to the Pomeranian Line and mythology of “recovery,” legitimising the incorporation of Central Pomerania into Poland.
Cmentarze i pomniki I wojny światowej po stuleciu. Stan badań i ochrony, 2019
Celem niniejszego artykułu jest prześledzenie, na jakie problemy napotyka badacz/ka pomników ku c... more Celem niniejszego artykułu jest prześledzenie, na jakie problemy napotyka badacz/ka pomników ku czci poległych i zaginionych w I wojnie światowej na terenie tzw. Ziem Odzyskanych i zaproponowanie sposobu kompleksowego ich badania.
Acta Universitatis Carolinae - Studia Territorialia, 2018
War memorials (in German, Kriegerdenkmäler) were built after World War I in almost every village ... more War memorials (in German, Kriegerdenkmäler) were built after World War I in almost every village and town in Czechoslovakia that had a German population, to commemorate those who had been killed in the war. After 1945, these memorials were either destroyed or recycled. The author shows how the new Czech inhabitants who replaced the traditional population of the borderlands coped with these memorials. Focusing her research on the Cheb and Mariánské Lázně regions, she considers the destruction of the monuments to be an example of managing a "dissonant heritage." Some of the monuments were demolished altogether; others were re-used for new purposes as parts of new objects. Applying Reinhart Koselleck's theory that war memorials serve the living more than they do the dead, by creating communal attitudes toward common social issues, the author analyzes patterns in the erection of German memorials of the Great War in the Czech lands. She also refers to Bernhard Böttcher's analysis of German war memorials in Czechoslovakia, which regards them as monuments commemorating a country which had ceased to exist. Her main thesis is that the "new life" given to war memorials after 1945 is connected to a new and different perspective among Czechs on World War I, to their hostile attitude towards the German heritage of Czechoslovakia, and to a different perception of memorials inherited from the past.
„Ziemie Odzyskane”. W poszukiwaniu nowych narracji, 2018
W artykule podjęta zostaje tematyka kulturowego recyclingu pomników ku czci poległych i zaginiony... more W artykule podjęta zostaje tematyka kulturowego recyclingu pomników ku czci poległych i zaginionych w I wojnie światowej na obszarze Pomorza Środkowego. Na użytek artykułu Pomorze Środkowe zostaje zdefiniowane jako obszar dawnego województwa koszalińskiego z lat 1950-1975. Autorka przedstawia historię tworzenia upamiętnień, jakimi były Kriegerdenkmäler oraz zarysowuje problem przerabiania ich po roku 1945 przez nowych osadników na lepiej znane elementy krajobrazu kulturowego. Wyróżnia dwie strategie, które nazywa kolejno (1) „strategią sygnałową”, polegającą na szybkim przerobieniu pomnika, który nie pełni następnie zakładanej przez wspólnotę funkcji, oraz (2) „adaptacyjną”, w której dochodzi do zmiany funkcji pomnika. Szczegółowa analiza zostaje przeprowadzona na studiach przypadku, jakimi są przerobione pomniki w miejscowościach Świeszyno (pow. koszaliński) i Sadkowo (pow. białogardzki). Artykuł został przygotowany na podstawie badań terenowych oraz archiwalnych.
This article concerns the writing strategies present in Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk’s works, especiall... more This article concerns the writing strategies present in Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk’s works, especially in The Czech Question. Firstly, the author shows the impact of the second edition of The Czech Question, published in 1908, on the discussion about the sense of Czech history. Secondly, she examines Masaryk’s writing strategies, showing to what extent they involve creating and, on the other hand, analysing Czech history.
This article is devoted to the inadequacy of the Polish and Czech terminology related to the disp... more This article is devoted to the inadequacy of the Polish and Czech terminology related to the displacement of German-speaking communities after 1945. Discussing the example of the terms “Sudety” and “pohraničí” (Borderlands), the author identifies the inadequacy of various equivalents of these concepts in Polish secondary literature. The adopted methodology makes it possible to demonstrate a particular historical entanglement of the term “Sudety” and its incompatibility with metadiscourse (the language of research). The terminological analysis is the starting point for describing the memory of the historical situation in the Czech pohraničí after 1945. The study analyses material collected during interviews with the residents of pohraničí, including their own reflections on terminological issues.
W artykule podjęta zostaje problematyka strategii pisania obecnych w dziele T. G. Masaryka, zwłas... more W artykule podjęta zostaje problematyka strategii pisania obecnych w dziele T. G. Masaryka, zwłaszcza w jego Czeskim pytaniu. Po pierwsze, autorka pokazuje jaki wpływ miało drugie wydanie Czeskiego pytania, opublikowane w 1908 roku, na dyskusję o sensie czeskiej historii. Po drugie, autorka analizuje strategie pisania Masaryka, pokazując, do jakiego stopnia chodzi w nim o kreację, a do jakiego o analizę czeskiej historii.
The author writes about the functioning of war memorials devoted to the German-speaking soldiers ... more The author writes about the functioning of war memorials devoted to the German-speaking soldiers killed in World War I (Kriegerdenkmäler) during the First Czechoslovak Republic period (1918–1938). The main subject is analysed based on case studies which allow to observe the Czech-German relations during this period. The paper examines the ways of functioning of the monuments in the Cheb Region. The principal object of analysis is the war memorial in Dolní Žandov. Here can be seen how the symbolic potential of both nationalities have intersected with each other.
The article sums up the author’s experiences resulting from a field research in the north-western... more The article sums up the author’s experiences resulting from a field research in the north-western part of the Suwałki Region. The object of the research was a study of the relations between Catholics and Evangelicals in the former Polish-Prussian borderland. On the basis of her interlocutors’ utterances the author gives a chronological presentation of Catholic-Evangelical relations from the interwar period up to the present, showing how they changed over time. The problem of perception of the Volkslist and the usage of the concept of Volksdeutsch by both denominational groups is also discussed. An essential part of the analysis is the author’s endeavor to understand the identification of ‘‘Evangelicality’’ with ‘‘Germanness’’ by Catholics. She notices an interesting phenomenon: the mode of talking about the denominational group as a whole differs from that of talking about its particular representatives.
The aim of this paper is to reconstruct the ways in which the Polish media describe Czechs and th... more The aim of this paper is to reconstruct the ways in which the Polish media describe Czechs and the Czech Republic. The author confronts this narration with the case of mass murder in Dobronín and other events happening after The Second World War, during the period of the almost omitted in Polish press and reportages, although very important and many times discussed in details in the Czech media, expulsion of Germans. The dominant tendency visible in the Polish media is to demistificate the history of Polish nation, but simultaneously they stereotypize and idealize the Czech nation’s history – showing it as a model. Poles write about Czechs omitting cases disrupting their coherent vision, which is significant especially in the present Polish press discourse. The author’s conclusion is that there is still need to find a new method of narrating tragic events in both nations’ history.
In her article, the author deals with the phantom presence of German-speaking inhabitants of Czec... more In her article, the author deals with the phantom presence of German-speaking inhabitants of Czechoslovakia after 1945. She bases her analysis on the documents of České zemské ústředí obcí, měst a okresů (Czech Central Union of Municipalities, cities and counties in Bohemia and Moravia – ZÚO), stored in the Czech National Archive in Prague. The author chooses two instances of correspondence between ZÚO and local institutions – the case of a hospital in Jičín and of a local administrative committee in Jablonec. Based on these two examples, the author looks into issues that came up in the wake of the resettlement of the German-speaking inhabitants of Czechoslovakia. It appears that these former inhabitants did not simply vanish from the public space. Using methods developed by the researchers into public bureaucracies, the author looks into the ways in which the presence of expelled Czech Germans remained visible in the public space and into how the Czechs dealt with that visibility. Furthermore, she gives an account of how the game of resence and non-presence of the displaced Germans is revealed in the sources. The central focus of her analysis is on interpretation of the material nature of the sources used. The author uses the term “phantom” to describe this multilayered (non-)presence of Czech Germans at the time.
The main problem in the research are the changes of the cultural landscape of the Czech Borderlan... more The main problem in the research are the changes of the cultural landscape of the Czech Borderlands, based on the example of the Dolní Žandov (formerly Unter Sandau) commune. In a significant way, the landscape there was co-created by the German-speaking inhabitants who, after 1945, practically disappeared from there, since they were displaced. It was a reason for changes in such areas like culture, society and landscape. In my research, I did not want to study the perspective of the expellees, I was rather interested in the perspective of the people who settled – or were settled – in the Dolní Žandov commune and the people who used to live there before 1945. I look into the perceptions of the landscape as well as the material heritage (urban organisation, elements of architecture). I am interested not only in historical monuments like churches, shrines, cemeteries, memorials and others but in buildings of everyday use – buildings people perceive as theirs, like houses and household buildings. In such way, I hope to reach to the memory of the past of the region. The book is based mostly on the interviews I held using oral history methods and the archive materials I found in the aforementioned institutions. The book is also based on archival sources. The work is divided into three sections. The first part is devoted to methodological questions, whether the research in landscape studies can be useful in looking into the problems of the Czech-German relations on the micro- and macro-scale. In the book, I try to use different approaches to the problem, although the tools offered by the disciplines such as studies of material culture and landscape studies are among the most commented on. Firstly, the presence of non-human objects allow me to look into problems where there are no witnesses or where the boundary between the narration and the reality becomes blurred. Secondly, it is useful to see the narrations about space in terms of not only biographical stories, but also as the stories where landscape tell us what is important. Thirdly, in looking into the objects which remained there although the people were displaced, the contemporary viewer (and researcher) can obtain a wider perspective and see the whole period – as described in the book – not only from the view of the expulsion, but as an example of a series of radical changes implemented also in the landscape. The second part is devoted to the places which are associated, in the memory of the contemporary and former inhabitants of Žandov, with the exact periods of local history. Thus, there is the Czech school and the German pre-school, as well as the local Kriegerdenkmal as the milestones of the era of the First Czechoslovak Republic (1918-1938). Both examples show how the two narrations, Czech and German, are divided, although they both describe the same places, but in different terms and languages which give objects different meanings for both groups. For the illustration of decade 1938-1948, I chose the main theme of the change of ownership forms, therefore I analyse the Jewish houses left in Žandov, basically one building, using the term of “non-place of memory”. In this chapter, I also look into the meanings and memories of the former RAD-Lager, which immediately after the War served as the contemporary camp for German-speaking inhabitants waiting to be expelled. In the last, third, chapter in this part, I look into two kinds of space, associated with the period which started in 1948 and in which also the changes after the Velvet Revolution happened. These are the borderlines, especially the buffer zones with the ideology of the Border Guard written in them, and collectivisation and places left by the so-called JZD (jednotné zemědělské družstvo, collective farm). I put these types into the meaning of what is understood as “common” and “our”, and what is the “trauma” present in the perceived landscape. The third part of the book is devoted to three different layers of the cultural landscape in Žandov as a category of analysis. The first one is connected with ruins and what is perceived as “ruined”. There are at least two points of view, and one of the main theses is developed: that, for the inhabitants of the village, not the year 1945 was critical, but the year 1948. It also challenges the common view that the Borderlands is the region full of ruins. I try to answer the question whether that is the case and, if so, why. The second layer that I have chosen is the sense of sacrum in the space. Here, I look into the meaning symbolised by the church, the chapels and the cemeteries (Czech, German and Jewish, civil and military ones). The third layer is connected with the former status of being near to the so-called “spa arch” and having the sources of mineral water in the commune. There, I analyse the possibility that the landscape is remembered not only for its own values, but also for how it was used. I look into the memories of two German doctors living in Žandov, especially the one who was famous due to his using of herbs to heal. All in all, I conclude that looking into the changes made in the cultural landscapes of Borderlands can give us a new perspective of how the region was and is perceived by its inhabitants. It can also tell us more about areas perceived as “dull” or “boring”, because no “great history” narration happened there.
Introduction to the 12th issue of Adeptus written by the Editorial Team. / Wstęp do 12 numeru Ade... more Introduction to the 12th issue of Adeptus written by the Editorial Team. / Wstęp do 12 numeru Adeptusa napisany przez zespół redakcyjny.
After 1945, German-speaking populations were expelled from Slavic Central Europe. In their place,... more After 1945, German-speaking populations were expelled from Slavic Central Europe. In their place, the new settlers came, and they lived with and among the objects left behind by the Germans. In this project, we are interested in how the persistence of these things left behind influenced the new cultures of the post-displacement regions in Poland, Czechia and Slovakia post-1945.
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Papers by Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska
imagine and rethink the representations of the end of the Second World War
and the expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia in current Czech literature
by using Susan Sontag’s ideas on photography. Three novels were chosen for
the basis of analysis: Jakuba Katalpa’s Germans (2012), Alena Mornštajnová’s
Blind Map (2013) and Michal Přibáň’s Only Twice for Everything (2016). The study
focuses on ways of depicting the last period of the war and the following expul-
sion to prove that these methods of description can be analyzed by employing
Susan Sontag’s proposal of photograph analysis in On Photography (1977). It also
demonstrates that Czech writers’ aesthetic proposals are not only associated with
verbal, but also visual strategies as well.
imagine and rethink the representations of the end of the Second World War
and the expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia in current Czech literature
by using Susan Sontag’s ideas on photography. Three novels were chosen for
the basis of analysis: Jakuba Katalpa’s Germans (2012), Alena Mornštajnová’s
Blind Map (2013) and Michal Přibáň’s Only Twice for Everything (2016). The study
focuses on ways of depicting the last period of the war and the following expul-
sion to prove that these methods of description can be analyzed by employing
Susan Sontag’s proposal of photograph analysis in On Photography (1977). It also
demonstrates that Czech writers’ aesthetic proposals are not only associated with
verbal, but also visual strategies as well.
The book is based mostly on the interviews I held using oral history methods and the archive materials I found in the aforementioned institutions. The book is also based on archival sources. The work is divided into three sections. The first part is devoted to methodological questions, whether the research in landscape studies can be useful in looking into the problems of the Czech-German relations on the micro- and macro-scale. In the book, I try to use different approaches to the problem, although the tools offered by the disciplines such as studies of material culture and landscape studies are among the most commented on. Firstly, the presence of non-human objects allow me to look into problems where there are no witnesses or where the boundary between the narration and the reality becomes blurred. Secondly, it is useful to see the narrations about space in terms of not only biographical stories, but also as the stories where landscape tell us what is important. Thirdly, in looking into the objects which remained there although the people were displaced, the contemporary viewer (and researcher) can obtain a wider perspective and see the whole period – as described in the book – not only from the view of the expulsion, but as an example of a series of radical changes implemented also in the landscape.
The second part is devoted to the places which are associated, in the memory of the contemporary and former inhabitants of Žandov, with the exact periods of local history. Thus, there is the Czech school and the German pre-school, as well as the local Kriegerdenkmal as the milestones of the era of the First Czechoslovak Republic (1918-1938). Both examples show how the two narrations, Czech and German, are divided, although they both describe the same places, but in different terms and languages which give objects different meanings for both groups. For the illustration of decade 1938-1948, I chose the main theme of the change of ownership forms, therefore I analyse the Jewish houses left in Žandov, basically one building, using the term of “non-place of memory”. In this chapter, I also look into the meanings and memories of the former RAD-Lager, which immediately after the War served as the contemporary camp for German-speaking inhabitants waiting to be expelled. In the last, third, chapter in this part, I look into two kinds of space, associated with the period which started in 1948 and in which also the changes after the Velvet Revolution happened. These are the borderlines, especially the buffer zones with the ideology of the Border Guard written in them, and collectivisation and places left by the so-called JZD (jednotné zemědělské družstvo, collective farm). I put these types into the meaning of what is understood as “common” and “our”, and what is the “trauma” present in the perceived landscape.
The third part of the book is devoted to three different layers of the cultural landscape in Žandov as a category of analysis. The first one is connected with ruins and what is perceived as “ruined”. There are at least two points of view, and one of the main theses is developed: that, for the inhabitants of the village, not the year 1945 was critical, but the year 1948. It also challenges the common view that the Borderlands is the region full of ruins. I try to answer the question whether that is the case and, if so, why. The second layer that I have chosen is the sense of sacrum in the space. Here, I look into the meaning symbolised by the church, the chapels and the cemeteries (Czech, German and Jewish, civil and military ones). The third layer is connected with the former status of being near to the so-called “spa arch” and having the sources of mineral water in the commune. There, I analyse the possibility that the landscape is remembered not only for its own values, but also for how it was used. I look into the memories of two German doctors living in Žandov, especially the one who was famous due to his using of herbs to heal.
All in all, I conclude that looking into the changes made in the cultural landscapes of Borderlands can give us a new perspective of how the region was and is perceived by its inhabitants. It can also tell us more about areas perceived as “dull” or “boring”, because no “great history” narration happened there.