Graduation Year
2015
Publication Date
Spring 2015
Abstract
In this study, Polish cultural identity as derived from shared cultural memories is explored. The persistence of a strong Polish cultural identity even throughout a turbulent history is examined during the Soviet era through the analysis of three films, Andrzej Wajda's Ashes and Diamonds, Agnieszka Holland's To Kill a Priest, and Andrzej Wajda's Katyn. Because viewing films can result in the adoption of prosthetic memory which contribute to support of cultural memory, and because the creation of film itself can be considered scriptotherapy, each film is a lens to better understand how reaction to traumas of World War II and adherence to belief in Catholicism have influenced cultural memory and, by extension, Polish cultural identity throughout the period of study.
Disciplines
International and Area Studies
Recommended Citation
Castle, Dominique, "Between History and Fiction: Visualizing Contemporary Polish Cultural Identity" (2015). Honors Projects. 20.
https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/intstu_honproj/20