Magic in the Social Construction of the Past: the Case of Teschen Silesia

• Authors: Jan Kajfosz
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The aim of the paper is to consider such ethnolinguistic categories as magic, connotation, and cognitive blending as possible keys to the following questions: How is it possible that we can perfectly adopt different representations of the past and internalize them as our past? How can we reconcile different representations of the past and how is it possible that diverse representations of the past merge in one social memory? Such amalgamations of various forms of representations and diverse scales of objectification can be clarified by means of the theory of magic, by means of the law of resemblance, and the law of contiguity. Such considerations are supported here by empirical study of the construction of social memories in Teschen Silesia, which was divided between Poland and Czechoslovakia in 1920. On both sides of the new border different state institutions emerged and influenced local memories.

Keywords

EN

magic thinking; social memory; connotation; constructivism; Teschen Silesia

• Publisher: Polskie Towarzystwo Socjologiczne
• Journal: Polish Sociological Review
• Year: 2013
• Volume: 183
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 351-368

Dates

published

2013-09-24

Contributors

author

Jan Kajfosz

• University of Silesia in Katowice