Faces of Postmemory 3

Call for Papers

The “Faces of Postmemory” conference, organized in 2014 as part of the 650th anniversary of the foundation of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, met with great interest. Its ongoing contribution to Polish research on this problem is constituted by the special issue of the academic journal Politeja, no 35, 3/2015.

The next stage of the venture of December 2015, namely the “Faces of Postmemory 2” conference, gathered over fifty speakers representing various disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, as well as a large audience. The research on the postmemory phenomenon, the memory of generational trauma being transmitted to following generations, is developing very dynamically facing new problems and new challenges. Thus, the Institute of Intercultural Studies of the Jagiellonian University and the Institute of Applied Linguistics of the University of Warsaw  decided to invite once again researchers and scholars who in their work undertake various aspects of postmemory.

We welcome representatives of various disciplines and specializations to present the results of their research within: cultural studies, history, linguistics, sociology, psychology, political science, history of art, film and theatre studies, architecture and urban studies.

As in previous editions of the conference we set no boundaries to which the theme should be limited e.g. to the consequences of the Holocaust, the Second World War or to the European context. However, on the occasion of this year’s event we would like to focus on the question whether the postmemory discourse shaped specific forms, ways and modes of expression.

Is it possible, on the basis of various fields of knowledge and the arts, to identify special codes and narratives characteristic for the expression of inherited trauma? According to the Argentinean cultural studies specialist, Beatriz Sarlo, an aesthetic canon of postmemory has been created in Europe which outlines “ways of remembering”. Can we really talk about canons applied in presenting the issue of postmemory? If yes, are they helpful or do they also to some extent limit our sensitivity and ways of perceiving past traumas? Thus, we invite all those who are seeking to answer these questions, along with all the aspects of postmemory in various historical and geographical contexts.

The outcome of the previous conference was a special issue of the journal Politeja (47/2017; http://www.akademicka.pl/ebooks/free/a6648a83eb04d4e5df7412868757af26.pdf) containing articles written by the participants. The same is planned in case of the coming event. A post-conference publication in the form of a peer-reviewed academic monograph will be based on selected papers presented at the conference of 2018.

It is our pleasure to announce that the inaugural lecture will be held by Professor Magdalena Saryusz-Wolska.