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Rhetoric and the cultural trauma: An analysis of Jan T. Gross’ book Fear. Anti-Semitism in Poland after Auschwitz

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Author

Summary, in English

This study deals with the historian Jan T Gross’ book Fear, published in 2006 in the United States and in 2008 in Poland. The book deserves special attention because it became one of the most discussed historical works in post-Communist Poland. In Fear, just as in his previous book Neighbors (2000), Gross challenged the Poles’ view of themselves as solely innocent victims of German Nazism and argued that anti-Semitism could and did lead them to kill Jews, both during and after the war. The author of the article seeks to answer the question as to what made the Poles react so strongly to Fear. She argues that the reasons are not only to be found in the book’s message and the political context in which it appeared but also in the mode of historical representation applied by Gross. The specific rhetoric of Fear has been noted by its critics, but no one analysed it closely. This study intends to fill that gap. The present author’s thesis is that in Fear, Gross uses the rhetorical design of a deliberative speech, and by so doing, anchors his narrative in the present and demands future action by his readers. This combination of telling about past events and pointing to their present relevance makes his narrative performance very different from conventional historiography. The value of Gross’ work lies not primarily in his contribution to the body of existing knowledge but in its functionality and performativity

Publishing year

2014

Language

English

Pages

161-175

Publication/Series

Memory Studies

Volume

7

Issue

2

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Topic

  • History and Archaeology

Keywords

  • Anti-Semitism
  • Poland
  • Jan T. Gross
  • cultural trauma
  • debate
  • rhetoric
  • historical representation
  • performativity

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1750-6980