A symposium at Goldsmiths, University of London
Date: Monday, 3 March 2008, 4-8pm
Venue: Richard Hoggart Building, Room 309, Goldsmiths, New Cross, London
The memory of Polish Jews and Jewish culture in Poland continues to be
the subject of controversy and conflict. This has become apparent in the
vigorous international debate surrounding the publication of the books
*Neighbors* and *Fear*, in which J.T. Gross discusses the troubled
history of Polish-Jewish relations during and after the war, focusing on
the pogroms of Jedwabne and Kielce.
The symposium will address the key question: What is the future of
Polish-Jewish relations?. On the one hand, it will engage with multiple
narratives of Poland and Polishness circulating in diasporic stories of
survival, migration and return, in both Europe and the US (Poland as a
site of trauma, a graveyard, or an imaginary homeland). On the other, it
will discuss the representations of Jews and Jewishness in the Polish
cultural and historical imaginary: in terms of loss, absence or
nostalgia; in the context of Polish national narratives of heroism,
oppression and liberation; and in relation to anti-Semitic myths and
images.
The plenary speakers at the symposium are:
* Dr Dorota Glowacka (University of King’s College, Canada), editor of
Between Ethics and Aesthetics: Crossing the Boundaries (SUNY Press,
2002) and author of numerous articles on the Holocaust
* Prof. Victor Jeleniewski Seidler (Goldsmiths, University of London),
author of Shadows of the Shoah: Jewish Identity and Belonging (Berg,
2000) and Jewish Philosophy and Western Culture (I.B. Tauris, 2007)
The symposium will also involve a screening of Marcel Lozinski’s
documentary, Witnesses (Swiadkowie, 1987, 26’) and a discussion with the
audience.
The event is organized and chaired by Dr Joanna Zylinska, and supported
by the Department of Media and Communications at Goldsmiths. It
accompanies the publication of the book, Imaginary Neighbors: Mediating
Polish-Jewish Relations after the Holocaust, edited by Dorota Glowacka
and Joanna Zylinska (University of Nebraska Press, 2007).
The symposium is free and open to all but places need to be booked by
emailing <[log in to unmask]>.
How to get to Goldsmiths:
http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/find-us/
--
Dr Joanna Zylinska
Department of Media and Communications
Goldsmiths, University of London
New Cross, London SE14 6NW, UK
My website: http://www.joannazylinska.net
Reviews Editor for Culture Machine: http://www.culturemachine.net
New book:
Imaginary Neighbors: Mediating Polish-Jewish Relations after the Holocaust
http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/bookinfo/5146.html
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