1. Home
  2. Issues
2020
No. Nr (13), Oral History - Emotions 2019
No. (12), Public History 2018
No. (11), Cultural History of Knowledge 2017
No. (10), Anthropology – Folklore – History 2016
No. (9), Cultural Heritage 2015
No. (8), Anthropology and History 2014
No. 1 (6), Semiotics of History No. 2 (7), History and Gender 2013
No. 1 (4), On Representation No. 2 (5), Genealogies of Culture 2012
No. 2 (3), Readings of the Past No. 1 (2), Anthropology / history of the Contemporary World 2011
No. 1-2 (1), Preliminaries
ISSN 2084–1418
The paper edition of the Anthropology of History Yearbook is the definitive version

2019, No. (12), Public History

Łukasz Łoziński
Controversy around Józef Kuraś “Ogień” and his subordinates. Narratives of historians and the inhabitants of Podhale

PDF version
Keywords: World War II, Podhale region, Józef Kuraś “Ogień”, Home Army, partisans, “cursed soldiers”, communism, politics of history, cultural memory, oral history

Abstract:
The myth of Józef Kuraś “Ogień” (“The Fire”) and his subordinates has become one of the main elements of Lesser Poland’s identity. The dominant image of those partisans is being created by historians from the Institute of National Remembrance (Polish: IPN) and that is why the article analyzes their statements. The goal is to reflect on the poetics of hegemonic narrative and the means that validate it. The article is inspired, inter alia, by semiology, meta-history and critical discourse analysis studies. The historians’ narratives are juxtaposed with the voices of witnesses of history from the southern part of Lesser Poland, that were collected through qualitative research. Following the grounded theory principles, the aim was to recognize the issues that are most important to the interlocutors and to highlight the key terms. The highlanders’ stories also became a guide while interpreting materials from the IPN’s archives. Testimonies from the fieldwork along with little-known documents make up an alternative narrative about Lesser Poland's past. What plays an important role within it are relations of the units with civilians, confiscations of private property and the acts of violence done by some partisans. The conducted analysis allows concluding what values are crucial for the historians and the highlanders as well. The differences between them are revealed. As a result, it is easier to understand the course and causes of the memory conflict that is taking place in the region.

About Author:
ŁUKASZ ŁOZIŃSKI - literary scholar, cultural anthropologist, doctoral student at the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology of the Jagiellonian University. E-mail: lukasz.jan.lozinski[at]gmail.com. ORCID 0000-0002-8293-0337.

References
Go back