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Poland's early history defines the geo-political and religious aspects of Medieval Eastern Europe. This historiographical essay analyzes various scholars' input on what certain aspects of Polish history, regarding the Piast and Jagiellonian Dynasties, had the most impressive impact. By analyzing the importance of religion and conversion in the early Piast realm, we are able to interpret Poland's involvement in the Holy Wars and consequential wars against the Infidel. According to various scholars, Poland's involvement may have been purely political and scarce at most. It is also crucial to look at how each of the most influential Kings ran their kingdom. From politics, to expansion, to regulations on social estates each kind chose a different way to make their mark on the Kingdom of Poland. The Anjou and Jagiellonian Dynasties produced the first female king of Poland. Queen Jadwiga is just one impressive aspect of Polish history. Scholars analyze the important of language and dialects when assuming Polish "citizenship". This criterial is fluid and changes throughout history. Scholars can agree, however, that "Polishness" is one's loyalty and obedience to the King or local Duke and their ability to speak the native tongue. However, even this statement is controversial, as an established local tongue did not occur until much later in time. At this time, Latin, Polish, Lithuanian, Prussian, and other Polish dialects would form into what is now known as modern Polish. This historiographical essay provides insight to the past of what Poland was before it was "Poland". With this information in mind, we can begin to understand why and how history evolves over time.
ContributorsStewart, Lacy (Author) / Cichopek-Gajraj, Anna (Thesis director) / Krajdocha-Oginska, Miroslawa (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
When the Warsaw Ghetto was demolished by German forces towards the end of World War II, there were few physical traces of the Ghetto left standing. As such, both historians and the public must look to other types of sources to understand what life and death were like for the inhabitants of the Ghetto, and how they have remembered their experiences within the Ghetto. These memories and representations of the Warsaw Ghetto can be found in memoir-style written works, and later, in films based on these works. This thesis will examine the ways in which the Warsaw Ghetto was represented by two authors who survived it, Władisław Szpilman and Marcel Reich-Ranicki, and how their memory of the Warsaw Ghetto is represented in the films based on their lives and survival, The Pianist, and Mein Leben: Marcel Reich-Ranicki.
ContributorsSmith, Erin Lianne (Author) / Benkert, Volker (Thesis advisor) / Cichopek-Gajraj, Anna (Committee member) / Gilfillan, Daniel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
This thesis argues that physical landscapes, from intentional sites of memory to average public spaces, play a foundational role in the formation and continuation of the official politics of memory that underpins Serbian cultural memory and collective identity. Thus, in order to understand the complexities of the Serbian collective identity, the landscapes that underpin such an identity must first be understood. Building off prior findings, the three landscapes to be considered relate to three pivotal moments in Serbian nation-building and identity formation: the end of the Ottoman presence, World War II and Yugoslavia, and the wars of the 1990s. This thesis put surveys of Serbian landscapes, which map both sites of remembrance and sites left to be forgotten in Belgrade, as well as oral histories with local young-adult Serbians in conversation in order to elucidate the extent to which individual conceptions of the past and of the Serbian identity correlate to the official politics of memory in Serbia. Young-adult Serbians have been selected, as their only personal experience with each moment of history under consideration is generational memory and state narratives of the past. Ultimately, this study seeks to expand and verify the themes of remembrance found in Serbia as well as understand how the reconstruction of the past, starting from the end of the Ottoman presence to the 1990s war, has figured into the various nation-building projects in Serbia. Building on Halbwachs and Nora, this study understands culture memory as dependent on objectivized culture, like buildings, which naturally challenges the traditional separation of memory and history. Though it does not represent the full Serbian public, this study demonstrates the limited role the physical landscape has in shaping the understanding of the past held by the Serbians interviewees.
ContributorsStull, Madeline (Author) / Manchester, Laurie (Thesis advisor) / Cichopek-Gajraj, Anna (Committee member) / Thompson, Victoria (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
Between 1941 and 1953, thousands of Lithuanians were deported by the Soviet Union as far from their homeland as the northern reaches of Siberia. While many perished as they contended with hunger, thirst, illness, harsh weather, ill-suited clothing, and poor housing, several survived, returned, and recounted their experiences. Returned adult deportees often recall solidarity among Lithuanians, interactions with locals and authorities, and efforts to maintain agency and continue cultural traditions. Children remember going to school, relying on their parents, and returning to Lithuania. Deportees and others involved in recording their memoirs wrote them in Lithuanian or translated them into English for different purposes and with different intended audiences. The ways in which deportees describe their experiences and what they omit from their stories have shaped Lithuania’s national identity when it reemerged as the Soviet Union fell following Stalin’s death in 1953 and Lithuania redeclared its independence in 1990. The years in which memoirs were published also likely influence their contents. Despite the horrors of deportation, returnees describe positive aspects of the experience. Many deportees portray themselves as struggling for survival, but not as helpless victims. Relatively rare mention of conflict among Lithuanian deportees and identification of non-Lithuanian deportees’ ethnicities suggest the importance of Lithuanians striving together for a common goal: survival and return to Lithuania. The creation of museums focused on deportation, incorporation of memoirs in school curricula, observation of a Day of Mourning and Hope, and portrayal of deportations in works of literature and film demonstrate their lasting impact and significance.
ContributorsDaulys, Gintare K. (Author) / Manchester, Laurie (Thesis director) / Cichopek-Gajraj, Anna (Committee member) / Watts College of Public Service & Community Solut (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05