Niemieckie akty skruchy wobec Polski a konflikty pamięci zbiorowych. Lingwistyczna analiza sprzeczności w dyskursach pamięci
German acts of contrition towards Poland and the conflicts of communal memory. Linguistic analysis of contradictions in discourses of memory

Author(s): Waldemar Czachur
Subject(s): Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: discourses of memory; acts of contrition; contradiction; conflict of memory; Polish-German dialogue
Summary/Abstract: The aim of this work is a linguistic study of the phenomenon of contradiction and conflict in binational discourses of memory as well as the very possibility of grasping it. In this context, the memory conflict is defined as a disclosed contradiction which is, on the one hand, a discursive and cultural phenomenon and, on the other, a catalyst of change for discourses of memory. Accordingly, this work attempts to carry out a linguistic analysis of the acts of contrition carried out by German politicians in Poland between 1989 and 2019, focusing on the textual and discursive determinants of contradiction. In this context, it is assumed that the acts of contrition expressed by German politicians were connected with the need of addressing the contradictions present in the Polish discourse of memory, while respecting the contradictions present in the German discourse. As a result, these contradictions – both in the national memory discourses and between Polish and German memory discourses — were becoming less pronounced.

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