From False Universalism to Fetishisation of Difference. The History of the Warsaw Uprising and the Revisionist ‘Herstorical Turn’ Cover Image

Od fałszywego uniwersalizmu do fetyszyzacji różnicy. Historia powstania warszawskiego i rewizjonistyczny „zwrot herstoryczny”
From False Universalism to Fetishisation of Difference. The History of the Warsaw Uprising and the Revisionist ‘Herstorical Turn’

Author(s): Weronika Grzebalska
Subject(s): History, Social Sciences, Recent History (1900 till today), WW II and following years (1940 - 1949)
Published by: Instytut Pamięci Narodowej
Keywords: Warsaw Uprising; World War II; women’ s history; gender history; history of historiography; false universalism; ‘herstorical turn’

Summary/Abstract: This text is an attempt to connect the reflection on historiography and collective memorywith the perspective of gender studies regarding historical writings on the Warsaw Uprising.The article tracks the various stages or ‘ideal types’ of professional and popular historiography and memory of the Warsaw Uprising seen from the perspective of the visibilityand position of women: false universalism of a large part of professional historiography of the uprising and the resulting invisibility of women and their experience in historical works; compensatory works that fill the ‘white spots’ of classical historiography, treating the history of women as a mere addition to the history of World War II; as well as the recent ‘herstorical turn’, characterised by a growing interest in women and the distinctiveness of their experiences. The article concludes with a reflection on the theoretical and methodological pitfalls of the ‘herstorical turn’ and attempts to put the phenomenon in broader socio-political context of current cultural wars in Poland.

  • Issue Year: 26/2015
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 139-158
  • Page Count: 20
  • Language: Polish
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