Multimodal discourses of collective memory
The aim of this paper is to analyze the interaction of the visual and the verbal layers of the memorials in the former extermination sites in Poland (cf. Young 1993). Two of the selected memorials were designed and erected in the 1960s (Chełmno nad Nerem and Majdanek) while the other two (Bełżec and Radegast) in the 2000s. The four case studies use the analytic categories of image schemata and metaphoric and metonymic extension in the analysis of the memorial landscape and critical discourse analysis in the analysis of the verbal layer. Memorials are memory carriers which have been constructed to facilitate rituals of commemoration designed to strengthen the in-group ties and collective identity. They thus become the potential vehicle of ideology of the period in which they were created. The analysis of the verbal and visual elements of the representation show how the change in the dominant discourse affected the design of the memorials, as well as how the traumatic landscape, in which these memorials are erected, motivated their imagery.
References (40)
References
Assmann, Jan. 2011. Cultural Memory and EarlyCcivilization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bauman, Zygmunt. 2001. Modernity and the Holocaust. Ithaka: Cornell University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bernárdez, Enrique. 2007. “Synergy in the Construction of Meaning.” In Language and Meaning: Cognitive and Functional Perspectives, ed. by Małgorzata Fabiszak, 15–37. Frankfurt/Main: Peter Lang.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bernárdez, Enrique. 2008. “Collective Cognition and Individual Activity: Variation, Language and Culture”. In Body, Language and Mind. Sociocultural Situatedness, ed. by Roslyn M. Frank, René Dirven, Tom Ziemke and Enrique Bernárdez, 137–166. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bielecki, Czesław. Dom i Miasto. “A Designer Company Website”. [URL] (date of access 21.01.2014).
Blomberg, Johan and Jordan Zlatev. 2014. “Actual and Non-Actual Motion: Why Experientialist Semantics Needs Phenomenology (and Vice Versa)”. Phenomenology and Cognitive Science 13: 395–418. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Buntman, Barbara. 2008. “Tourism and Tragedy: The Memorial at Belzec, Poland.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 14 (3): 422–448. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Casasanto, Daniel. 2009. “Embodiment of Abstract Concepts: Good and Bad in Right- and Left-Handers”. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 138(3): 351–367. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cassasanto, Daniel. 2011. “Different Bodies, Different Minds: The Body Specificity of Language and Thought”. Current Directions in Psychological Science 20 (6): 378–383. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fabiszak, Małgorzata. 2016. “Contesting Memories in Text and Image: Discursive Representation and Cognitive Construal”. In The Holocaust in the Twenty-First Century: Contested/Contesting Memories, ed. by David M. Seymour and Mercedes Camino. London: Routledge.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fabiszak, Małgorzata and Marcin Owsiński (eds.). 2013. Obóz – Muzeum. Trauma we Współczesnym Wystawiennictwie [Camp – Museum. Trauma in Contemporary Exhibitions.] Kraków: Universitas.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fairclough, Norman. 1995. Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language. London/New York: Longman.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Golka, Marian. 2008. Pamięć Społeczna i jej Implanty. [Social Memory and its Implants] Warszawa: Scholar.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Gross, Andrew S. 2006. “Holocaust Tourism in Berlin: Global Memory, Trauma and the ‘Negative Sublime’”. Journeys 7 (2): 73–100. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Johansson-Falck, Marlene and Raymond W. Gibbs. 2012. “Embodied motivations for metaphorical meanings”. Cognitive Linguistics 23 (2): 251–272. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Halbwachs, Maurice. 1980. The Collective Memory. New York: Harper & Row.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Johnson, Mark. 1987. Body in the Mind. Chicago: Chicago University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kącka, Katarzyna. 2012. “Shared Memory: The Sources of Polish and German Perceptions of History after System Transformations.” In Central Europe on the Threshold of the 21st century: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Challenges in Politics and Society, ed. by Lucyna Czechowska and Krzysztof Olszewski, 35–52. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kövecses, Zoltán. 2002. Metaphor. A Practical Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kuwałek, Robert. 2010. Obóz Zagłady w Bełżcu. [Extermination Camp in Bełżec]. Lublin: Państwowe Muzeum na Majdanku.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lakoff, George and Mark Johnson. 1980. Metaphors We Live by. Chicago: Chicago University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lakoff, George and Mark Johnson. 1999. Philosophy in the Flesh. New York: Basic Books.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Langacker, Ronald. 1987. Foundations of Cognitive Grammar. Volume 1: Theoretical Prerequisites. Stanford: Stanford University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Levy, Daniel and Natan Sznaider. 2002. “Memory Unbound. The Holocaust and the Formation of Cosmopolitan Memory.” European Journal of Social Theory 5 (1): 87–106. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Litoe, Daniel B. 2006. “Seeing Nothing: Allegory and the Holocaust’s Absent Dead.” SubStance 132 (35/2): 51–70.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Marcuse, Harold. 2010. “Holocaust Memorials: The Emergence of a Genre.” American Historical Review 115: 53–89. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Michalic, Joanna Beata. 2012. “’Remembering to Remember’, ‘Remembering to Benefit’, ‘Remembering to Forget’: The Variety of Memories of Jews and the Holocaust in Postcommunist Poland”. Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs 113. [URL] [Date of access 27.05.2013]![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Nora, Pierre. 1989. “Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire”. Representations 26: 7–24. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Oakley, Todd. 2007. “Image schemas”. In The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics., ed. by Geeraerts, Dirk and Hubert Cuyckens, 214–235. Oxford: Oxford University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Olesiuk, Danuta and Krzysztof Kokowicz. 2009. “Jeśli ludzie zamilkną, głazy wołać będą...”. Pomnik ku czci ofiar Majdanka [“If people fall silent, the stones will call...” Memorial for the victims of Majdanek]. Lublin: Państwowe Muzeum na Majdanku.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Pawlicka-Nowak, Łucja. 2004. “Dzieje upamiętnienia byłego obozu zagłady w Chełmnie nad Nerem (do 1995 r.) [A history of commemoration of the former extermination camp in Chełmno nad Nerem].” In Mówią świadkowie Chełmna [The Witnesses of Chełmno Speak], ed. by Łucja Pawlicka-Nowak, 32–39. Konin/Łódź: Rada Ochrony Pamięci Walk i Męczeństwa w Warszawie, Muzeum Okręgowe w Koninie, Oficyna Bibliofilów Łódź.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Rohrer, Tim. 2007. “Embodiment and Experientialism.” In The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics, ed. by Dirk Geeraerts and Hubert Cuyckens, 25–47. Oxford: Oxford University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Rosenberg, Elissa. 2012. “Walking in the City: Memory and Place.” The Journal of Architecture 17 (1): 131–149. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sinha, Chris. 2005. “Blending out of the Background: Play, Props and Staging in the Material World.” Journal of Pragmatics 37 (10): 1537–1554. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Szlachetka, Małgorzata. 2009. Majdanek. Historia Pomnika Walki i Męczeństwa. Rozmowa z Wiktorem Tołkinem. [Majdanek. A History of the Memorial of Fight and Martyrology. A talk with Wiktor Tołkin]. Gazeta Wyborcza 17.09.2009.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Van Dijk, Teun. 1993. “Principles of Critical Discourse Analysis.” Discourse and Society 4 (2): 249–283. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Van Dijk, Teun. 2006. “Discourse, Context and Cognition.” Discourse Studies 8 (1): 159–177. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wodak, Ruth and Martin Meyer (eds.). 2001. Methods in Critical Discourse Analysis. London: Sage. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Young, James E. 1993. The Texture of Memory. Holocaust Memorials and Meanings. New Haven /
London: Yale University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by (1)
Cited by one other publication
Chlebda, Wojciech
2020.
Versprachlichtes Gedächtnis.
tekst i dyskurs - text und diskurs :13 (2020)
► pp. 101 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 25 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.