Od znikania do odpominania

Postpamięciowe narracje o Miedziance

Abstract

From Disappearance to Re-Remembrance. Post-Memory Narration about Miedzianka

Miedzianka – a lower Silesian village, earlier: mining town and a leisure-tourist resort, ger. Kupferberg. It is said that it is a ghost-town, which has (almost) diaappeared. Some traces, however, remained – a church, photography or human memories – both from before World War II, of German citizens and after the world war of polish inhabitants. All of them are connected by the traumatic experience that combines post-war resettlement and the destruction of the town. The memory of Miedzianka was not destroyed, though, being passed to next generations. One of the voices of this post-memory can be found in the report by Filip Springer, Miedzianka: Story of Disappearing in 2011. This book quickly became recognised ensuing an increasing interest in the town, its history and fate, making new post-memory narrations to appear, which I describe as „post-memory practice”. One of them is Miasto, którego nie było (The City, which didn’t exist). What and how do these books tell us about Miedzianka? In what sense do these alternative but interpenetrating narrations influence the perception of this place, as well as the memory of it? These questions are the basis of the reflections leading to a display of relations between man and his oblivion/memory and the place. The literature, however, or widely art, having the power to preserve memory and therefore to save, allows the showcasing of the transformation of the town: its history, disappearance, and finally transubstantiation into a place of memory, which is created mainly by the second and third generations – heritage depositories.