Gendering Memory: Intersectional Aspects of the Polish Politics of Memory
Gendering Memory: Intersectional Aspects of the Polish Politics of Memory

Summary/Abstract: The article is devoted to the process of gendering memory as a counterpoint to the politicization of memory observed in the Polish context. The core problem of the paper is a description of a local case of this type of gender ‘memory practising’ in the area of the public urban sphere, specifically one created by the Łódź Women’s Heritage Trail Foundation (https://www.facebook.com/ŁódźkiSzlakKobiet) – a gender-profiled female grass-roots initiative that is concerned with the city’s past. The article consists of three main parts referring to, respectively, the functioning of memory in the urban public sphere as a form of dialogue (hemerneutic-interpretative anthropology with Jurgen Habermas’ and Seyla Benhabib’s theories is the theoretical foundation here), the process of gendering memory (appearing alongside the narrative phrase and feminist proposals for the interpretation of memory as a form of its pluralization), and the presentation of the activities within the Łódź Women’s HeritageTrail Foundation’s particular initiative – namely ‘Women Routes in Łódź’ – as a kind of case study for the city as a landscape of memory. The paper deals with the tension observed between the politics of memory and the political practice, and the alternative memories that arise from the idea of multiplicity and polyphony, including the voice of women. The authors raise the issue of the genderization of memory in the context of an inquiry into how the pluralism of collective memory and the diversification of the public sphere develops as a result of the discourses and operation of the alternative memory, including gender-focused memory.

• Details
• Contents