Evoking Polish Memory
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Warsaw Studies in Contemporary History 3 3 Warsaw Studies in Contemporary History 3 Anna Witeska-Młynarczyk Anna Witeska-Młynarczyk Evoking Polish Memory The book offers an interdisciplinary but state bureaucracy and politics. The book Evoking Polish Memory very grounded look at the question of focuses on the beliefs, hopes and fears Anna Witeska-Młynarczyk memory politics in contemporary Poland. of people who became the subjects of It describes the conflicting ways in historical policy during their lifetimes. State, Self and the Communist Past in Transition which two groups of people - the former anti-communist activists and the former officers of the repressive regime - have The Author actively engaged in representations and Anna Witeska-Młynarczyk is a lecturer at claims about the communist past in the the Department of Ethnology and Cultural contemporary reality of one Polish town. Anthropology at the Adam Mickiewicz The material is based on ethnographic University in Pozna´n (Poland). She fieldwork conducted during the years received a PhD in Social Anthropology at 2006-2008. The author focuses on the the University College London in 2010. processes of reconstruction of memories Her research interests focus on memory, and subjectivities taking place at the subjectivity, medical anthropology and intersection of individuals, civic society, anthropology of space. Evoking Polish Memory ISBN 978-3-631-64163-7 COHI-03 264163_Witeska_AK_A5HC PLE edition new.indd 1 18.11.13 KW 47 13:53 Warsaw Studies in Contemporary History 3 3 Warsaw Studies in Contemporary History 3 Anna Witeska-Młynarczyk Anna Witeska-Młynarczyk Evoking Polish Memory The book offers an interdisciplinary but state bureaucracy and politics. The book Evoking Polish Memory very grounded look at the question of focuses on the beliefs, hopes and fears Anna Witeska-Młynarczyk memory politics in contemporary Poland. of people who became the subjects of It describes the conflicting ways in historical policy during their lifetimes. State, Self and the Communist Past in Transition which two groups of people - the former anti-communist activists and the former officers of the repressive regime - have The Author actively engaged in representations and Anna Witeska-Młynarczyk is a lecturer at claims about the communist past in the the Department of Ethnology and Cultural contemporary reality of one Polish town. Anthropology at the Adam Mickiewicz The material is based on ethnographic University in Pozna´n (Poland). She fieldwork conducted during the years received a PhD in Social Anthropology at 2006-2008. The author focuses on the the University College London in 2010. processes of reconstruction of memories Her research interests focus on memory, and subjectivities taking place at the subjectivity, medical anthropology and intersection of individuals, civic society, anthropology of space. Evoking Polish Memory COHI-03 264163_Witeska_AK_A5HC PLE edition new.indd 1 18.11.13 KW 47 13:53 Evoking Polish Memory WARSAW STUDIES IN CONTEMPORARY HISTORY Edited by Dariusz Stola / Machteld Venken VOLUME 3 Anna Witeska-Młynarczyk Evoking Polish Memory State, Self and the Communist Past in Transition Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. This publication was financially supported by the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. Cover image: An unveiling of a monument to an underground soldier near Marianowice © Anna Witeska-Młynarczyk Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Witeska-Młynarczyk, Anna, 1973- Evoking Polish memory : state, self and the Communist past in transition / Anna Witeska-Młynarczyk. pages cm. -- (Warsaw studies in contemporary history ; v. 3) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-3-631-64163-7 1. Historiography--Political aspects--Poland. 2. Memory--Political aspects-- Poland. 3. Post-communism--Poland. 4. Collective memory--Poland. 5. Group identity--Poland. 6. Ethnology--Poland. I. Title. DK4139.W58 2014 943.805072--dc23 2013044280 ISSN 2195-1187 ISBN 978-3-631-64163-7 (Print) E-ISBN 978-3-653-03232-1 (E-Book) DOI 10.3726/978-3-653-03232-1 Open Access: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 unported license. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ © Anna Witeska-Młynarczyk, 2014 Peter Lang – Frankfurt am Main · Bern · Bruxelles · New York · Oxford · Warszawa · Wien This book is part of the Peter Lang Edition list and was peer reviewed prior to publication. www.peterlang.com For Marcin, Jurik, and Lena oraz moim rodzicom Acknowledgements Many people made this project possible. Firstly, I want to thank those who gave their voices and who entrusted me their thoughts on communism, Poland, memory and their sense of self. Without them, this narrative would never have come into being. I want to thank numerous friends, colleagues, and teachers for their support, encouragement and critical comments, and for the stirring suggestions I received throughout the duration of this project. I owe my very special gratitude to Mi- chael Stewart, who made my encounter with anthropology possible and who su- pervised my PhD thesis out of which this project was born. His supervision was extremely thoughtful and kind. Michael, thank you for all the sources of uncon- ventional inspiration I received from you, for your constant support, understand- ing and the rigour of clarity that you passed on to me. It is thanks to you that my encounter with anthropology has endured. Alexandra Argenti-Pillen was a fabu- lously engaged and motivating second supervisor. I feel very lucky for stopping by at her class one day and learning new ways of thinking. Alex, thank you for your vigour, expertise, imagination and creativity. I feel unable to express how much I learned from you during our scheduled and accidental meetings. Your support and engagement were fabulous. Frances Pine was a friend, a host, and an invaluable teacher far beyond the bounds of this project. Thank you for all the time spent together, for the night talks and the enlightening trips. All of these are unforgettable. Your expertise on Poland and memory was crucial in my pro- cess of figuring out what was at stake in me and in the people I met in this fieldwork. Your influence on my work has been profound. I owe my special ap- preciation to Michal Buchowski from Adam Mickiewicz University who com- mented extensively on the manuscript and supported me through the publishing process. Michal proved an amazingly big-hearted boss and a friend. Michael Lambek’s works gave me many guidelines for thinking about memory, and the insights he provided into this particular manuscript helped improve this work in innumerable ways. The book has particularly benefited from members of the Department of An- thropology at University College London, where the work was discussed on var- ious occasions. I thank the professors at UCL, especially Allen Abramson, Mukulika Banerjee, Martin Holbraad, Ruth Mandel, David Napier, Chris Pin- ney, Nanneke Redclift, Mikel Rowlands, Chris Tilley and Charles Stewart, whose insights, comments and support were of great significance to me. In par- ticular, Martin Holbraad’s enthusiasm and original comments helped push this project in new directions. I thank my great friends and colleagues at UCL, espe- 8 Acknowledgements cially Viorel Anastasoaie, Gabriela Nicolescu Cristea, Razvan Dumitru, Kon- stantinos Kalantzis, Sophie Kallin, Dimitra Kofti, Inge Mascher, Sebina Sivac- Bryant and Catalina Tesar, who commented on this work, encouraged its devel- opment and kept me in high spirits. Parts of the book were presented at the 2007-AAA conference in Washington where Nicolas Argenti and Katharina Schramm kindly hosted me at their panel devoted to the topic of memory and intergenerational transmission. I feel indebted to the organizers and the panel- lists, Jackie Feldman, Carol Kidron and Stephan Palmié - the discussant - for their inspiration and thoughtful remarks on the unfolding of memory formations in various geographies and social settings. I benefited from them greatly. I am particularly appreciative of Nicolas Argenti for his commentaries on and en- couragement for this work. I am also grateful to the members of the interdisci- plinary network Memory and History in Postsocialism for their remarks and their stirring works, which made me think more critically about my own materi- al. I thank anonymous reviewers for their sensitive and valuable comments on this work. My special thanks go to Simon Wessely at King's College London for stimulating conversations and the openness with which he received me. I thank Susana Narotzky for London walks and talks about psychoanalysis and Jewish history and memory. I thank Leyla Neyzi for unravelling the fruitfulness of ties linking anthropology with history as well as for her insights into narrative and memory. I owe my sensitivity to the discipline of history to Halil Berktay’s and Pablo Sánchez León’s amazing knowledge and intelligence, which I was able to tap into during my stay at Sabanci Uniersity in Istanbul. Also, Ayşe Õncű’s re- flections on memory and space stayed with me and helped developed this pro- ject. Many things would not have been possible without Ayşe Caglar’s kind support. I also thank Don Kalb for helping me grasp the intimacies of the politi- cal. I thank Istvan Rév for his suggestions and comments on this project. John Coast’s linguistic competency and efforts to turn this work into a pleasant read are impossible to overestimate. Dariusz Stola and Machteld Venken, who decided to add this work to their series Warsaw Studies in Contemporary History, proved very reassuring and thoughtful editors. I greatly profited from their sensitive comments and sugges- tions. I also owe many thanks for the patience and encouragement I received from Łukasz Gałecki - the Peter Lang editor.