Kresonostalgia – krajobraz i pamięć
The nostalgia for the Borderlands – landscape and memory

Author(s): Łucja Kapralska
Subject(s): Sociology of Culture
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: Kresy; cultural landscape; memory; postmemory;nostalgia;
Summary/Abstract: The paper deals with the Kresy, the pre-WWII Polish Eastern Borderlands which have not belonged to Poland since 1945. Poles who after WWII were exiled from this territory preserved the memory of Arcadia – the beautiful land, picturesque countryside and noble people living there – because “Poland, like a bagel, is the best on the edges…” Absent in Polish political and social reality, this land is still recalled in memories, in the rituals of memory such as nostalgic tourism, on the Internet (where millions of records connected to the Kresy can be found), and in activities of the organizations of Kresy compatriots. The Kresy are the cultural landscape of memory – although they exist no more, the memory of the Kresy does. They are the subject of longing forasmuch their former inhabitants miss their lost homeland. The aim of the article is to answer the following questions: what are the forms of this nostalgia, who is subject to it, and what are its functions?

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