Tearing Off the Masks: Narratives on Jewish Communists Cover Image

Zdzieranie masek. Sposoby pisania o żydowskich komunistach
Tearing Off the Masks: Narratives on Jewish Communists

Author(s): Anna Zawadzka
Subject(s): Jewish studies, History of Antisemitism
Published by: Instytut Slawistyki Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: anti-Semitism; colonialism; essentialism; Orientalism; racism; anti-communism

Summary/Abstract: The paper presents an analysis of the contemporary Polish debate on Jewish communists. The analysis was performed in the framework of colonialist theories. I deconstructed narrations about Jewish communists, which belong in the Polish political mainstream, and are regarded as moderate, objective and devoid of any ideology. The tropes shared by the colonialist discourse and the debate on Jewish communists are: orientalisation, eroticisation, infantilisation, presenting the object of research outside the historical context, abolishing the context of social and political inequalities, and declaring the victims guilty of the violence they experience.

  • Issue Year: 2013
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 236-262
  • Page Count: 27
  • Language: Polish