Geneviève Zubrzycki

De la nation ethnique à la nation civique: enjeux pour l'Eglise catholique polonaise

With the advent of a legitimate, democratic state in Poland it is necessary not only to reconsider the traditional role and the predominant place of the Catholic Church in Polish society, but also — and more significantly —to redefine the bases of national identity. The authors thesis is that the national and political legitimacy of the state is leading to a transition from a primarily cultural and religious definition of the nation and of Polish national identity (ethnic nation), to one that is more political and civic in character (civic nation). This gradual identity shift is characterized by tensions between two opposed visions of the nation, indicating a slow move away from an essentialist conception of the nation to a more pluralist one. It is in that broader perspective of national redefinition that we can best understand the debate over the place of the Catholic Church in post-communist Poland, since the Church has much to lose from such an identity transition.

The Politics of Jewish Absence in Contemporary Poland

Since the early 2000s, Polish society has undergone a significant ‘mnemonic awakening’; rediscovering traces of past Jewish presence in that country, critically examining the process of eradication of Jewish life and its subsequent erasure from collective memory, and attempting to recover some aspects of the Polish-Jewish past. Based on archival and ethnographic data, this article analyzes different modes of mnemonic practices that directly engage with Jewish absence. I show that for Jewish absence to even be noticed by contemporary Poles and potentially experienced by them as a void that deserves to be (re)filled, past Jewish presence is being brought back to life. I argue that this mnemonic creation of absence is part of a broader political project to expand Polish national identity beyond the narrow confines of Catholicism.

Nationalism, “Philosemitism,” and Symbolic Boundary-Making in Contemporary Poland

This article analyzes the growing interest in Jews and all things Jewish in contemporary Poland—from the spectacular popularity of festivals of Jewish culture to the opening of Judaica bookstores and Jewish cuisine restaurants; from the development of Jewish studies programs at various universities and the creation of several museums to artists’ and public intellectuals’ engagements with Polands Jewish past and Polish-Jewish relations more broadly. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, over sixty formal interviews with Jewish and non-Jewish activists, and informal conversations with participants in various Jewish-centered initiatives, I argue that this cultural phenomenon is related to the attempt by specific political and social groups to build a pluralistic society in an ethnically and denominationally homogenous nation-state. I build on the literature on nationalism and symbolic boundaries by showing that bringing back Jewish culture and “resurrecting the Jew” is a way to soften, stretch, and reshape the symbolic boundaries of the nation that the Right wants to harden and shrink using Catholicism as its main tool.

Narrative Shock and Polish Memory Remaking in the Twenty-first Century

This chapter examines different modes of memory-making, un-making, and remaking in present-day Poland, as it relates specifically to its Jewish past. In memory studies much has been written on trauma and denial on the one hand and mythology and nostalgia on the other.1 Here I investigate the relationship between these memory modes by analyzing three distinct memorial projects: the postwar creation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and its post-1989 narrative revision; the Jedwabne memorial and counter memorial; and the commemorative projects of artist/memory activist Rafal Betlejewski “I Miss You, Jew” and “Burning Barn.” By analyzing national institutions, state-sponsored memorial monuments, and “bottom-up” citizens’ commemorative initiatives, the chapter aims not only to uncover a typology of memory-making practices and projects, but also to highlight how these form discrete links in a complex mnemonic chain reaction. I show that postwar socialist memorialization of the Second World War, which downplayed the Holocaust and emphasized Polish victimhood, reinforced a long-standing national martyrological myth. As that mythology was seriously questioned after 1989, it sent Poles into a state of “narrative shock,” bringing about different forms of reactive memory.2 By analyzing discrete cases, I show how the forging of that chain is related to national mythology, historical events, regime change, narrative reconfigurations, and political projects.3

Nationalist Politics and Everyday Ethnicity in a Transylvanian TownNationalist Politics and Everyday Ethnicity in a Transylvanian Town, by BrubakerRogers, FeischmidtMargit, FoxJon, and GranceaLiana. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006. 502 pp.

on restaurants (strangely, viewed as an example of “art”) and statistical software ratings may warrant certain inferences about consumer products, but not broader claims about status cultures and inequality. The theoretical mistake is to adopt a social constructivist position while viewing the world in terms of an underlying continuum of quality (p. 110) along which products or dining establishments are rated. There is no underlying continuum. Reviewers generate evaluations. Consumers and producers attend to them according to a variety of processes, one of the most important of which depends on the type of cultural object being reviewed and its role in statusdefining interactions. The argument is missing a theory of cultural hierarchy and an acknowledgement that artworks differ from consumer products. This is precisely why they can be used as status markers and why the process is not a direct or straightforward influence from critics to audiences (Shrum 1996). Critical evaluation is important only at higher reaches of the cultural hierarchy. The status bargain is an exchange of influence for prestige. The author could be right about the neglect of critics and ratings—he cites only two scholarly articles on these subjects within the past ten years in a 16-page bibliography. Either I haven’t missed anything, or Blank has. It is also possible that critical reviews, in the old-fashioned sense, are becoming less important. Given the pervasiveness of Internet reviews, I suspect that is true (hey, check out AS213909 ’s Netflix review of All About Eve, one of 114). “Connoisseurial” would be a misleading term for either the process that generates these reviews or the way in which they are read and used by consumers. There has never been much evidence that this kind of review has any strong effect on consumer choices. I swear I will never write another review. Virtue is its own reward.