Based on fieldwork in the contemporary Polish town of Oswiecim - Auschwitz in German - and drawing on interactionist thought, this book presents an innovative theoretical and empirical approach to the present attribution of meaning to the past, thus shedding light on the manner in which residents remember and narrate the past of their town.
The author explores the complementary, fluid and contradictory nature of meaning-making processes in various contemporary interactional contexts. As such, it will appeal to social scientists with interests in memory studies, the Holocaust and interactional sociology.
Thomas Van de Putte is a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Sociology and Social Research at the University of Trento, Italy.
1. Introduction: A Synchronic, Interactional Approach to Collective Memory 2. A Critique of Memory Studies' Epistemologie s 3. Collective Memory and the Self: Towards an Epistemology of 'Dividuals' 4. Interactional Memory Methods 5. The Politization of Auschwitz/Oswiecim since 1944: Memory Politics in Poland and Beyond 6. Including or Excluding Jews? An Analysis of Context-Dependent Othering in Auschwitz/Oswiecim 7. Ethnifying Agency: Inhabitants of Auschwitz/Oswiecim Narrating 1939-1945 8. Renegotiating Auschwitz: Attribution of Meaning to Spatial Realms in Auschwitz/Oswiecim 9. Conclusion