"Instead of Tombstones - a Tree, a Garden, a Grove": Early Israeli Forests as Environmental Memorials

• Authors: Maria Piekarska

Title variants

PL

„Zamiast nagrobków – drzewo, ogród, gaj”. Wczesne izraelskie lasy jako środowiskowe upamiętnienia

Abstracts

PL

Poniższy artykuł dodaje perspektywę materialno-semiotycznych badań nad pamięcią zbiorową do dyskusji na temat dwóch największych leśnych kompleksów wczesnego państwa Izrael – Ya’ar HaMeginim (Las Obrońców) i Ya’ar HaKedoshim (Las Męczenników). Biorąc pod uwagę wielość kontekstów związanych z praktykami masowego zalesiania w Izraelu prowadzonymi przez Żydowski Fundusz Narodowy, artykuł rozważa te lasy jako środowiskowe upamiętnienia. Jako takie posiadają one sprawczość narracyjną, silnie wiążącą obiekt upamiętnienia ze znaczeniami przypisywanymi naturze w ramach jej społecznej konstrukcji. Co więcej, ze względu na swój organiczny budulec, wykazują możliwości afektywne i materialne, które aktywnie wpływają na pamięciowy przekaz tych kompleksów. Na podstawie analizy obu izraelskich lasów pamięci wyciągane są wnioski na temat możliwego udziału upamiętnień środowiskowych w procesach pamięci zbiorowej.

EN

The article adds a material-semiotic memory studies perspective to the discussion on the two largest afforestation projects of early Israeli statehood: Ya’ar HaMeginim (Defenders’ Forest) and Ya’ar HaKedoshim (Martyrs’ Forest). Considering the multiplicity of contexts related to mass tree planting practices conducted by the Jewish National Fund in Israel, the article analyses the two arboreal complexes as environmental memorials. As such, they are attributed with narrative  agency that strongly associates the object of commemoration with socially constructed pastoral features of nature. Moreover, due to their organic substance, they hold affective and material capacities that significantly influence the commemorative after-effects. The two Israeli mnemonic assemblages are examined, and conclusions are drawn on the possible outcomes of environmental memorials for collective memory processes.

Keywords

PL

badania nad pamięcią; upamiętnienie środowiskowe; las; krajobraz; perspektywa materialno-semiotyczna; syjonizm; Izrael

EN

memory studies; environmental memorial; forest; landscape; material-semiotic perspective; Zionism; Israel

• Publisher: Instytut Slawistyki Polskiej Akademii Nauk
• Journal: Colloquia Humanistica
• Year: 2020
• Issue: 9
• Pages: 101-120

Dates

published

2020

Contributors

author

Maria Piekarska

• Uniwersytet Warszawski [University of Warsaw], Warsaw

• https://orcid.org/0000000270159012

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Identifiers

DOI

10.11649/ch.2020.008

Biblioteka Nauki

31339647