FRAMING CENTRAL EUROPE

June 27th – July 1st (Monday–Friday) 2022 Warsaw

Summer School organized by
4EU+ Alliance and College of Central European Studies,

hosted by the University of Warsaw

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Program

All the lectures will take place at Faculty of Modern Languages at the University of Warsaw

(Wydział Neofilologii Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego)

Dobra Street 55, 00-312 Warsaw

lecture hall 01.076, -1 floor

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Monday, June 27th

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10.30–11.00        Opening

 

11.00–11.30        Coffee break

 

11.30–13.00        Roundtable (lecturers present to the students their programs, research)

 

13.00–15.00        Lunch on your own

 

15.00–16.30        Prof. Jadranka Gvozdanović, Heidelberg University

Cultural construals in language

16.30–16.45        Short break

16.45–18.15        Prof. Małgorzata Smorąg-Goldberg, Sorbonne University

Mapping the interrelations between the historian, the artist and the public sphere after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The challenges of the memorial debate in Poland: case study from “Neighbors” by Jan Tomasz Gross (historian), “Our Class” by Tadeusz Slobodzianek (playwright) and “Aftermath” by Władysław Pasikowski (filmmaker)

 

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Tuesday, June 28th

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10.00–11.30         Prof. Clara Royer, Sorbonne University

Creative Memory as Literary Testimony: Leib Rochmann, Imre Kertész and Aharon Appelfeld

 

11.30–12.00       Coffee break

 

12.00–13.30       Prof. Paweł Rodak, University of Warsaw

Beyond Literature. The Polish autobiographical twentieth century

 

13.30–15.00        Lunch on your own

 

15:00–16.30        Prof. Paola Catenaccio, University of Milan (online)

The framing of Poland in Chopin’s biographies

 

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Wednesday, June 29th

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10.00–11.30        Prof. Marie-Françoise Saudraix, Sorbonne University

States, orders, nations, borders: how to govern in Central Europe in 17th – 18th centuries

 

11.30–12.00        Coffee break

 

12.00–13.30        Prof. Jiří Šubrt, Charles University

Collective Memory and Historical Consciousness from a Czech Perspective

 

13.30–15.00        Lunch on your own

 

15:00–16.30        Prof. Delphine Bechtel, Sorbonne University

The Jewish dimension of central Europe as seen through the street – an essay in urban topography, past and present.

 

16.30–18.30        A Walking Tour of Warsaw’s Jewish Heritage, guided by Prof. Delphine Bechtel

 

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Thursday, 30th

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10.00–11.30        Prof. Maria Cristina Paganoni, University of Milan (online)

Place Branding in Poland: Linguistic and Discursive Strategies in Global Tourism Communication

 

11.30–12.00        Coffee break

 

12.00–13.30        Prof. Magdalena Latkowska, University of Warsaw

Central Eastern Europe and its crises Political turning points from the perspective of German intellectuals

 

13.30–15.00        Lunch on your own

 

15.00–17.00        Edyta Rubka-Kostyra, presentation of the exhibition: The Artist. Anna Bilińska 1854–1893: the making of, The new patterns of gender oriented exhibitions devoted to female artists.

(The National Museum in Warsaw, Al. Jerozolimskie 3, 00-495 Warsaw)

 

17.45                    Banquet and certificates

(Faculty of Modern Languages at the University of Warsaw, Dobra Street 55, the CFC Library, room 3.012, 3rd floor)

 

 

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Friday, 1st, July

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10.00                    Visit at the POLIN – Museum of the History of Polish Jews, guided by Prof. Delphine Bechtel

 

 

 

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LECTURES

 

Prof. Jadranka Gvozdanović, Heidelberg University

 

Cultural construals in language

 

Cultural values and identities are shaped and transmitted by means of language. In this sense, language offers fine-tuned indications for cultures and cultural change.

The lecture starts with a general introduction about language as an explicit and implicit means of communication and a cultural and social capital. This will be illustrated by linguistic means of gender construal since the 19th century related to social backgrounds and consequences of the different construals.

The second part focuses on the role of language in the formation of social and national identity. It shows how in addition to communicative strategies also ideology crucially influences language choice, which in turn underpins social symbolics. The final point to be discussed are processes of choosing standard-language norms in Central Europe.

Prof. Małgorzata Smorąg-Goldberg, Sorbonne University

 

Mapping the interrelations between the historian, the artist and the public sphere after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The challenges of the memorial debate in Poland: case study from “Neighbors” by Jan Tomasz Gross (historian), “Our Class” by Tadeusz Slobodzianek (playwright) and “Aftermath” by Władysław Pasikowski (filmmaker)

 

From this example, I will reflect on the way in which literary and artistic discourses participate in the management of the past in Poland .

A number of historical works published by the new generation of historians in the footsteps of Jan Tomasz Gross’ book Neighbors, have contributed to a reviving of the public debate and memorial narratives in Poland. There is a croscontamination between historical and artistic discourses. I will analyze when and how these narratives have been and continue to be a form of artistic statement, and then I will question their status (the issue of generational relay) and the role of metaphors in the process of transmission (allegorization of the memorial heritage).

Under what conditions can these subjective (re)constructions become a complementary discourse to that of the historian, anthropologistl  and/or sociologist? When and how do they resonate with the objective document that triggers them? What are the social repercussions of this reunion with a confiscated, distorted or manipulated history? What kindf of narrative structures do they borrow? What thematic matrices are used there?

 

 

Prof. Paweł Rodak, University of Warsaw

 

Beyond Literature. The Polish autobiographical twentieth century

 

The main objective of the lecture is to indicate the specific character of Polish writing in the twentieth century as autobiographical and memoir writing, in which a very important role is played by such practices and genres as diaries, memoirs and letters. The historical context related to the experiences of Poles in the twentieth century (the fact that the Polish lands were partitioned from 1795 and regained independence in 1918, World Wars I and II, the extermination of Jews on Polish soil, mass economic and political emigration, and finally life after 1945 in the country of real socialism) is very important here. To express these experiences, autobiographical and memoir genres, with the author’s voice clearly present, turned out to be the most appropriate. Seen through the prism of autobiographical genres, Polish modern writing reveals its originality and universality at the same time. For the first time in Polish writing on such a large scale, the voice of those groups and communities was present that until then remained silent or were marginalised: workers, peasants, women, children, Jews. The autobiographical genres made polyphony and internal diversity a constitutive feature of Polish writing in the 20th century.

 

 

Prof. Paola Catenaccio, University of Milan

 

The framing of Poland in Chopin’s biographies

 

This lecture analyses the discursive framing of Poland in multiple biographies of the famous Polish composer and pianist Fryderyk Chopin. The biographies analysed were all written in English (with the exception of Listz’s, which has been included in English translation from the French because of its influential impact on later biographies) and can therefore be assumed to have been addressed to an international, English-speaking audience. Their depiction of Poland in accounts of the life of a composer who to a large extent is taken to symbolise his country is an especially interesting object of analysis because its framing can exert a significant influence on the way in which the Poland of the time is understood and interpreted by audiences who may have little background knowledge. The lecture intends to address critically the notion of framing with reference to national character, alerting students to the power of framing strategies in offering preferred readings of – amongst other things – history.

 

Prof. Marie-Françoise Saudraix, Sorbonne University

 

States, orders, nations, borders: how to govern in Central Europe in 17th – 18th centuries

 

What is Austrian Monarchy the name of? Several territories, one ruler. Each state was included with its borders, nations, laws and constitution. But, time going, the sovereign was often accused to centralize power, to get on the path of “absolutism”. What we will question here is the government of this elaborate set of system and structures, and the “modernization” during the 17th and 18th of the Austrian Monarchy. At the end of the period, could we say that we are in presence of a “modern State” as France or England could claim to be? Certainly not by western european standards, but a fonctionnal one, perhaps.

 

 

Prof. Jiří Šubrt, Charles University

 

Collective Memory and Historical Consciousness from a Czech Perspective

 

This lecture aims to provide the relatively  complete overview of the nature and content of the historical consciousness of the Czech population to be based on knowledge gained through tools from quantitative and qualitative sociological methodology. First there is a theoretical introduction to the researched topic; then snapshot of the  population’s interest in the history of the Czech Republic as such; the focus is on general aspects of historical consciousness, particularly people’s ideas about the importance of the forces that influence the course of history, and their assessment of the general importance of history. Interpretation of the analysis concludes with evaluations of Czech national history and its various stages and major events. In the conclusion of lecture there is a comprehensive interpretation of the empirical knowledge gained, in the context of existing theoretical concepts.

 

 

Prof. Delphine Bechtel, Sorbonne University

 

The Jewish dimension of central Europe as seen through the street – an essay in urban topography, past and present

 

Jews represented a significant proportion of the population of cities in Central Europe before the war: ranging from 10% (Vienna), 20% in Budapest, to more than 30% in Łódź, Lwów, Wilno, Warsaw, Odessa and more than 50% in Białystok, Rowno, Grodno, Lutsk, Kowel, and other localities of the borderlands. The urban experience of Jews can be measured using various sources (statistics, sociology, stories, and memoirs). This presence has strongly marked the urban landscape of central and eastern European cities, traces of which can be seen in old photographs and postcards, etc. The question of the memory of places manifests itself today in the presence-absence of Jews in these same localities, or according to municipal policy or the action of associations and individuals, various memorial strategies are put in place in the public space and museography. In particular, we are going to focus on the street as a shared space, a “common place”, a place of passage, of circulation. We will look at how researchers have approached, methodologically, the question of the memory of streets. We will also see how, depending on the cities and countries, the memorialization of the Jewish past in the streets, their appearance and their marking (or not) is practiced.

 

Prof. Maria Cristina Paganoni, University of Milan

 

Place Branding in Poland: Linguistic and Discursive Strategies in Global Tourism Communication

 

The practice of place branding, which is essential to tourism promotion, relies on a set of linguistic, discursive and semiotic strategies that have been enhanced by Web 2.0 tools. With English as the lingua franca of global communication, these strategies are deployed across genres and media to build, maintain, modify and develop an appealing brand identity for potential international tourists.

This lecture sets out to illustrate a few traits of Poland’s current branding as a tourist destination, which is the aim of an all-out effort on the part of the Polish Tourism Organisation (POT) and its network of stakeholders, especially after the travel constraints imposed by COVID-19. To this purpose, the focus will be placed on Poland’s Official Travel Website and its offer of iconic places and itineraries, with an eye to the multimedia branding campaign “Poland: More than You Expected” run in November and December 2021. Through the insights of Discourse Analysis and social semiotics, a  selection of multimodal textual materials will be analysed to identify the frames that are activated in brand construction and what they reveal about the projected identity of contemporary Poland.

 

 

Prof. Magdalena Latkowska, University of Warsaw

 

Central Eastern Europe and its crises Political turning points from the perspective of German intellectuals

 

From the end of World War II to the turning point of 1989 Central Eastern Europe was shaken by crises that often changed the course of events and caused a remarkable change in the politics (in socialists’ jargon it was called a correction) of the current ruling power. Both the June Uprising in 1953 in the GDR and the Polish October as well as the Uprising in Hungary in 1956, followed by the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, the Prague Spring 1968 and the breakthrough of 1989 strongly marked the politics of the CEE countries. During the lecture, the causes, course and effects of selected crises will be presented and analysed, with particular emphasis on the role played by German intellectuals in some of them as well as their assessments on them.

 

Edyta Rubka-Kostyra, The National Museum in Warsaw

 

The Artist. Anna Bilińska 1854–1893: the making of

 

Anna Bilińska was the first Polish female artist to gain international recognition. Her works were presented at the most important European exhibitions and appreciated by critics from many countries. Even today her paintings and fascinating life raise considerable interest among the public, while many of her works have become part of the canon of Polish art. However the artist’s entire oeuvre and life story have yet to be thoroughly analysed and described.

The proposed lecture devoted to a woman in exile (double marginal status) entering the most important art salons in Paris will be accompanied by a presentation and then a visit to the National Museum in Warsaw. The questions we intend to raise are of Bilińska’s self-awareness and her thoughts on the artist’s position in the world, which manifested itself in, among others, the representation of her own image in self-portraits. Bilińska’s biography is also extremely interesting, both in terms of how she overcame financial and personal problems along the path to professional success, and of her social and emotional relationships. Her oeuvre cannot be presented without outlining the limitations facing women in the 19^th century within the framework of art institutions and education, as well as in the context of social norms and expectations.

 

 

CONTACT: 4euplus.summerschool2022@gmail.com

 

Organizing Committee

Justyna Avci (University of Warsaw)

Nicolas Maslowski (University of Warsaw)

Paweł Rodak (University of Warsaw)

Aleksandra K. Wiktorowska (University of Warsaw)