Bücher der Reihe Eastern European Culture, Politics and Societies

This volume is a collection of papers written over the course of forty years. It examines political attitudes, patterns of political behavior, and institutional framework of transition to democracy in Poland. Its contents have been shaped by and provide commentary on the often-dramatic political developments in Poland: the emergence of the massive liberation movement ¿Solidarity¿ in 1980¿81; the dissent against the communist regime in the 1980s; the struggles to pave the roads toward consolidated democracy in the 1990s; and the problems with adaptation to European liberal values in the 21st century that led to democratic backsliding. In conclusion, it presents the cultural and structural background of the cleavage between the proponents of open society and its enemies.

This book reexamines the situation of Jews who after the liquidation of ghettos were hiding in the villages of the Kielce-Sandomierz region, and the attitude of local Christian people and partisans towards these Jews. A fresh perspective is contributed by the author's anthropological approach to the newly discovered field and archival sources.

Polish Literature and the Holocaust (1939-1968) scrutinizes literary and documentary testimonies rooted in that historical, political, and anthropological context and produced during (1939-1945) or after (1945-1968) the extermination of Jews in the Second World War. It overviews belles-lettres, personal document literature, and press publications.

In his work Limit Experiences, Jacek Leociak addresses questions that are fundamental to the twentieth-century experience: How can we represent such traumatic events as the Holocaust? Was Lyotard correct when he claimed that reality had succumbed to the gas chambers? How can we describe the "indescribable"?

Der Autor analysiert Tagebücher, Erinnerungen, Memoiren, Chroniken, Berichte und Briefe, die während der Zeit des Zweiten Weltkriegs und der deutschen Besatzung im und um das Warschauer Ghetto entstanden. Er untersucht die Gattungsspezifik und den speziellen Status dieser Texte, die das in Worte zu fassen versuchen, was gemeinhin als unbeschreibbar gilt. Der Autor widerspricht der verbreiteten These von der Unausdrückbarkeit. Er betont die Notwendigkeit des Ausdrucks jener Erfahrung und die Notwendigkeit des Versuchs zu verstehen.

What do we remember from our national past and why? What are the dangers of history being (mis-)appropriated by politicians? The Past in the Present provides a critical analysis of recent disputes over Polish historiography. The author uses theories of Collective Memory as a guideline, and the Polish-German borderlands as his leitmotif.

The book offers an opportunity to look at the genesis of national identity as it was constructed in a specific stateless and multicultural context through cultural transfer and the impact of the contemporary media. It explores Polish reactions to the Italian Risorgimento.

The authors of this book are critical to gender regimes in the fields of education, work, family life and politics. They are convinced that women and men are faced with different structural opportunities and barriers. Women are faced with significantly less chances to transform and transfer their cultural and social capital into a political one.