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The paper edition of the Anthropology of History Yearbook is the definitive version

2017, No. (10), Anthropology – Folklore – History

Agnieszka Gołębiowska-Suchorska
Graffiti on Church Benches in the Context of Sacral Space Inscriptions

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Keywords: graffiti, inscriptions, sacrum and profanum, visual folklore

Abstract:
The article analyses graffiti from pews in Roman Catholic churches in Bydgoszcz, gathered by the author in the years 2014-2017. The method of contextual analysis and case study has been applied in the research. Inscriptions from the Bydgoszcz churches have been analysed in the context of the selected examples of inscriptions in sacral space (a church with its premises and buildings), those that are historically certified and those which have occurred in our times. Inscriptions, regardless of their status (legal-illegal), have been studied mainly taking into account their location in sacral space and on the basis of the findings of M. Eliade on the division and experience of sacral and secular space by man.Moreover, inscriptions have been analysed in the cognitive aspect (topics) and the pragmatic aspect (the presumed image of a recipient and a sender as well as motivations for leaving inscriptions).Conclusions from the analysis indicate difficulties in the interpretation of motivations behind leaving graffiti on church pews. The topics of inscriptions on pews, despite their location close to the centre of sacral space, do not reflect the experience of sacral space, but rather point to the perception of the church by the creators of the graffiti similarly to secular space.

About Author:
AGNIESZKA GOŁĘBIOWSKA-SUCHORSKA - literary scholar, Russian philologist, folklore scholar, assistant professor at the Institute of Modern Languages and Applied Linguistics at the Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz. E-mail: agsuchorska[at]ukw.edu.pl

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