Silesia and Silesians: between rootedness and uprootedness. Reflection in context of policy of cultural annihilation

Abstract

The aim of the text is to reflection around the question: How (im)possible is Silesia in the policy of cultural annihilation? The author’s interested in social remembrance and takes the Silesian heritage as exemplifications of these cultures, an important part of which is the non-memory of political and war traumas. The subject of the analysis are two cultural texts (Zbigniew Rokita's "Kajś. Opowieść o Górnym Śląsku" and Alojzy Lysko's "Mianujom mie Hanka. Opowieść górnośląska"), which were subjected to semantic and structural analysis (in the approach of Roland Barthes and Paul Ricoeur).

The structure of the text consists of four parts: the first is a reconstruction of selected aspects of Stanisław Ossowski’s theory of cultural heritage; the second focuses on the issue of rootedness and uprootedness (Simone Weil’s theory); the third is an attempt to recognize the biographical and identity-related effects of the policy of annihilating Silesian memory; the last part is a reflection on the problematic question.

Conclusions: un-remembering are: (1) it is an opportunity to discover what miraculously survived and what is important for the reconstruction of Silesian; (2) it is an opportunity to recreate a tragically broken generational message; (3) it is an opportunity to recognize the tragedy of Upper Silesia as part of the public Silesian heritage; (4) it is an opportunity to make public and recognize the tragedy of Upper Silesia and its political recognition is the first step towards building a new multiculturalism in Poland.