Germany Poland And Postmemorial Relations

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Germany, Poland, and Postmemorial Relations addresses the relationship between German and Polish memory discourses and practices after 1989, following the collapse of communism, the unification of Germany, and Poland's accession to the EU. As opposed to the bilateral approach of other memory studies, this volume focuses on the interdependencies of German, Polish, and Jewish collective memories and their dialogic, transnational character.

The contributors pose critical questions about the dynamics of the public discourse of memory and their cultural manifestations. Their findings indicate shifts in the Grand Memorial Narrative of Polish-German relations, from an engagement with a politics of entitlement to an EU-facilitated politics of reconciliation.

They expand the operative notion of postmemory from the individual dimension to the collective, and reveal postmemory's formation as vulnerable to political, cultural, and economic pressures. This volume is addressed to a broad academic and non-academic audience interested in Central European culture and history.

Review: Germany, Poland and Postmemorial Relations: In Search of a Livable Past presents a fascinating constellation of perspectives on the ever-changing Polish-German relationship. This scholarly exchange offers a welcome inquiry into a complicated labyrinth of neighborly claims, resentments, nostalgic sentiments, and state politics. - Bozena Shallcross, professor, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Chicago This collection of stimulating articles, framed by a lively introduction by Kopp and Nizynska, gives a fascinating overview of debates in German-Polish relations over the last two decades, involving politics and culture, interdependent collective memory and public legitimacy, victimhood and guilt, grand narratives and contested spaces, all of tremendous significance for Europe's future. - Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius, Lindsay Young Professor of History and director of the Center for the Study of War and Society, University of Tennessee This collection represents a major contribution to our understanding of perhaps the most complex relationship in modern European history.

This compelling analysis of the post-1989 Polish and German 'memory' of an often dark past is insightful, provocative, and unsettling, yet manages to leave the reader in an optimistic mood by explaining how these old neighbors can mend and are mending their fence. - Robert L. Nelson, associate professor of History, University of Windsor A bright constellation of insightful, accessible essays on contemporary remembrance and embrace of the intricately intertwined German-Polish-Jewish past, authored by a multinational array of today's leading cultural analysts and historians.

This valuable book highlights newly meaningful, often positive legacies that are emerging from the shadows of the communist era and the mid-twentieth century's tragedies. - William Hagen, professor emeritus of History, University of California, Davis