The aesthetics and ethics of performative Holocaust memory in Poland
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Abstract
This article addresses the performative dimension of the post-1989 Polish memorial culture of the Holocaust, characterised by a collaborative and audience-participatory model of remembering the Jewish victims. In this model participants are invited to become creators and owners of public memory, rather than silent observers or witnesses to commemorations performed by others. The article offers a critical and theoretical understanding of performativity in Holocaust commemoration through the examples of educational memorial actions Listy do Henia (‘Letters to Henio’) and Kroniki sejneńskie (‘The Sejny Chronicles’) led by the Polish grassroots institutions Ośrodek Brama Grodzka (‘Grodzka Gate-NN Theatre Centre’) in Lublin and Ośrodek Pogranicze (‘Borderland Foundation’) in Sejny. Drawing mainly on Polish perspectives on memory, the article examines the aesthetic and ethical value of these actions. It further probes how a performative model of engagement can serve to expose the complex past of Polish–Jewish relations, to bring the historical past vividly into current consciousness, and to facilitate a sense of belonging to a moral community of memory among younger generations of Poles.
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Holocaust Holocaust Education Holocaust Commemoration Holocaust Memorials Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial Memory Post-1989
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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28(1)
Page Number / Article Number
22-37
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Download can be found on page, The aesthetics and ethics of performative Holocaust memory in Poland
Bibliographic Information
The aesthetics and ethics of performative Holocaust memory in Poland. 2017: 22-37. https://archive.jpr.org.uk/object-1428
