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Issue 1 (11)

2012 Next

Publication date: 21.11.2012

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Izolda Topp

Arts & Cultural Studies Review, Issue 1 (11) , 2012, pp. 12 - 25

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843860PK.12.001.0641

The Way. Searching for the polish mnemotopos in Lower Silesia
Polish memory was mainly founded by mythology of Polish romanticism. The way is one of its symbolic form, connecting peoples destiny, national history, catholic faith and landscape of former Eastern Borderlands. The article is devoted to analysis of the way as a memory image of the inhabitants of the Lower Silesia resettled here after the Second World War. It is based on the photos taken by local farmer in late fifties. The author distinguished three symbolic modes of the way as a memory image in particular small village community: axis mundi; passage; pilgrimage. According to him, catholic religion play crucial role in construction of Polish memory and national identity in Lower Silesia after the war.

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Dariusz Czaja

Arts & Cultural Studies Review, Issue 1 (11) , 2012, pp. 26 - 35

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843860PK.12.002.0642

Rovigo station. Arrivals, departures
Rovigo is the name of small town in the northern part of Italy. No Baedeker, no guide notices the name in its hot list of Italian “miracles”. Rovigo is the common, ordinary place, no spectacular monuments or tourist attractions one can meet there. In this context, it seems to be a bit enigmatic and striking, that the famous poem by Zbigniew Herbert has been entitled after Rovigo (it’s the title of the penultimate set of poems by Herbert, as well). Why Herbert decided to honor such “invisible city” in his poetry? The author brings out the main motives of the poem and tries to delineate deep semantics of the very name Rovigo.

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Magdalena Barbaruk

Arts & Cultural Studies Review, Issue 1 (11) , 2012, pp. 36 - 50

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843860PK.12.003.0643

Route of Don Quixote as a mnemotope
In this article the author argues that Route of Don Quixote is a mnemotope, which allows to examine the relations betwen landscape, literary trails and collective memory. The author suggests that the Mancha’s landscape can be considered as the first in the history of Western culture and this fact should be connected with the values of the Spanish community.
Noticing that the Route of Don Quixote is the mnemotope clarifies why it was the first European Cultural Itinerary constructed on a literary figure, explains the political usage of the figure of Don Quixote, the reasons for passionate discussions on how to commemorate cervantine anniversaries or dispute about the true knight-errant wandering route. The author explores some of the contemporary cervantine place of memory (the date of III and IV Centenary of the edition of the first part of the novel, the famous Azorín’s journey, Quixotic street names, „true” novelistic places, landscape with windmills).
The author characterizes various communities of memory (exiliados, readers, cervantists),that used the figure of Quixote. The author asks whether traveling in search of the knight’s footsteps is drifting the physical space or rather an imitation of his actions. From the perspective of memory research there are multiple routes of Don Quixote, because in different communities are cultivated different memories of true knight’s route. Using the Halbwachs’ concept the author shows the importance of location of Don Quixote’s adventures. Pondering the meaning of „death of cervantine landscape” the author concludes that the literary vision of The Mancha, „holy landscape” in which the community reaffirms its value, still exists

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Marcin Stabrowski

Arts & Cultural Studies Review, Issue 1 (11) , 2012, pp. 51 - 60

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843860PK.12.004.0644

Sites of memory in Wałbrzych. Research perspectives and deficits
The author undertakes problem of connections between history of culture and places of memory studies. The notion of milieu de mémoire is discussed in an interdisciplinary perspective, taking as an example the city of Wałbrzych. The city map is scanned for “meaningful places” in order to find their axiological content and (cultural) modes-of-being connected to them. Also, certain peculiarities of Lower Silesian places of memory have to be taken into consideration given the plurality of historical layers and often hard to identify cultural influences characterizing the region. Postulated interdisciplinary approach, which is always important when studying places of memory, becomes even more valuable because in this case a historical research is necessary. Also, a ponderable part of the article is concerned with a local photographer’s – Paweł Sokołowski – work, which is an inspiring example of visual presentation of places of memory.

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Małgorzata Czapiga

Arts & Cultural Studies Review, Issue 1 (11) , 2012, pp. 61 - 70

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843860PK.12.005.0645

Folding space – an introduction to landscapes of emptiness
Landscapes of emptiness are not just empty representations in which there is nothing but they are rather a representation suggesting the earlier presence that contain material traces of human existence. Abandoned places with equal force have been disturbing and fascinating but the reasons and causes of their ravages are often different. Can be found here Chernobyl Zone, the American ghost towns, Polish cities deserted by the Soviet army after the change of the political system, a small town with complicated history like Miedzianka, or uninhabited cities like Ordos. Photographs of the landscapes of emptiness come back and haunt us. Their meaning is not always clear, often disappear for seemingly quiet, full of silence picture. Such photographs could be considered as a translation of the experience of space, made according to the rules appropriate for the cultural representation: creating photographic images of abandoned places always starts process of symbolization. We could say that the photographs of emptiness are palimpsest’s sum of past meanings, elements of deep layers of culture and individual experience.

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Jacek Małczyński

Arts & Cultural Studies Review, Issue 1 (11) , 2012, pp. 71 - 93

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843860PK.12.006.0646

“There has a Jewish village”. Jewish memory on the basis of interviews with inhabitants of Zakrzówek
The article deals with the Jewish Memory in Zakrzówek in the Lublin Voivodeship. Just prior to the Second World War, over 800 Jews lived there. The article is based on interviews with present inhabitants of the village and consists of five parts. The author makes an attempt to reconstruct the memories of interviewees about: landscape of the village before the war, Jews, Polish–Jewish relations, the Holocaust, hiding Jews and Jewish pits. This is a pretext for discussing distinctions between individual, cultural and collective memory, the notion used by Maurice Halbwachs.

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Zbigniew Pasek

Arts & Cultural Studies Review, Issue 1 (11) , 2012, pp. 94 - 111

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843860PK.12.007.0647

Topoi of memory of Polish protestants
The article describes so-called mnemotopoi of Polish Protestants’ image of the past  included in the language conceptualized into repeating forms. The term is related to E.R. Curtis and his concept of common places (loci  communes).The conducted analysis allowed to distinguish between three forms of commemorating topic (or simply topoi). First of them has initial character and is connected with Biblical traditions, strong awareness of German roots of Reformation and with relationships with German cultural circle. Second of them is the topic of threat and harm, including also the topos of besieged fortress. The third is the topic of choice (e.g. the topic of salt of the earth) – cultural and religious superiority of Protestant countries saved in their historical memory. According to Evangelicals, the religious superiority means eliminating magic from religion.

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Małgorzata Grzywacz

Arts & Cultural Studies Review, Issue 1 (11) , 2012, pp. 112 - 118

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843860PK.12.008.0648

The article “Polish-German places of rememberance and commemoration made manifest”.
These notes, made in the margin of a certain Polish-German project and its documentation, show from practical side the areas of historical rememberance that is present in the awarness of Polish and German university students. The concept of “recollection and reminiscence places” related to specific sites and events in history of Great Poland is provided with a commentary based mainly on so-called “participatory cognition”.

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