Playing with Figures of Collective Memory in Artistic Work. Issues in Memory Linguistics Cover Image

Gra figurami pamięci zbiorowej w utworze artystycznym. Z zagadnień lingwistyki pamięci
Playing with Figures of Collective Memory in Artistic Work. Issues in Memory Linguistics

Author(s): Aleksandra Niewiara
Subject(s): Polish Literature, Western Slavic Languages, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Politics of History/Memory
Published by: KSIĘGARNIA AKADEMICKA Sp. z o.o.
Keywords: collective memory; images of nations; Andrzej Stasiuk; literary language

Summary/Abstract: The article presents an ethnolinguistic analysis of A. Stasiuk’s drama Czekając na Turka (‘Waiting for the Turk’). Staged in 2009, the play examines figures of communicative and cultural collective memory, to use Jan Assmann’s terminology. Particular attention is given to linguistic means of lexical and syntactic archaization of literary text, used to elicit associations with the past images of Turks in Polish and European imagination, and in consequence, to propose an interpretation of an important event in European culture and history at the end of the 20th century: the fall of the Berlin Wall. In comparison with the older concept of antemurale Christianitatis (associated with Ottoman Turks’ incursions against European countries), the importance of the modern, current concept is reduced.

  • Issue Year: 14/2019
  • Issue No: 27
  • Page Range: 51-65
  • Page Count: 15
  • Language: Polish