Abstract

The article argues that Poland’s mainstream national historical narrative, at least as far as the last two centuries of history of the country is concerned, is full of ‘traumatic’ motives which are regularly used and developed in diverse current political and intellectual contexts. Polish history is imagined to a large extent as an endless chain of 200 years of suffering, caused, among other things, by occupations, wars and exploitation, which are usually seen as not fully recognized in other countries, in particular in the West. The article attempts first of all to explain this specific nature of Poland’s historical identity by the privileged role of the intelligentsia, understood as a specific type of elite based on possession and control of cultural capital. It reconstructs the historical rise of the intelligentsia and its impact on the mainstream narrative in question, pointing to a selective choice of potential ‘traumas’ which are assigned a national status. They may be seen as tools to build positions in what can be called the Polish ‘field of power’, to use the notion coined by Pierre Bourdieu. The particular configuration and recent history of the field of power in Poland is reconstructed in order to explain different strategies of what can be called the social and political construction of historical traumas in Poland.

Highlights

  • Uses of History in an Intelligentsiadominated PolityThe article argues that Poland’s mainstream national historical narrative, at least as far as the last two centuries of history of the country is concerned, is full of ‘traumatic’ motives which are regularly used and developed in diverse current political and intellectual contexts

  • This paper will argue that dominant visions of what can be called historical traumas in contemporary Poland are socially constructed and serve primarily one specific social group, which can be perceived as dominant or even hegemonic in Poland, namely the intelligentsia

  • Poland’s mainstream national historical narrative, at least as far as the last two centuries are concerned, is full of traumatic motifs that are used in diverse current political contexts

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Summary

Uses of History in an Intelligentsiadominated Polity

The article argues that Poland’s mainstream national historical narrative, at least as far as the last two centuries of history of the country is concerned, is full of ‘traumatic’ motives which are regularly used and developed in diverse current political and intellectual contexts. The article attempts first of all to explain this specific nature of Poland’s historical identity by the privileged role of the intelligentsia, understood as a specific type of elite based on possession and control of cultural capital. It reconstructs the historical rise of the intelligentsia and its impact on the mainstream narrative in question, pointing to a selective choice of potential ‘traumas’ which are assigned a national status.

Introduction
The Identity of the Polish Intelligentsia and its Narratives of Trauma
The Historical Roots of the Intelligentsia Hegemony
Findings
The Naturalized Intelligentsia Hegemony and its New Visions of Trauma
Full Text
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