Partition Narratives and Regions of Memory: Upper Silesia as a European Mnemo-Region

An online seminar by Professor Leszek Drong (University of Silesia)
organised by the School of English, recorded January 26, 2023.
“Partition narratives and regions of memory” will focus on Upper
Silesia (a historical region in the south of Poland) and its
history articulated in regional memory, which often stands in sharp
contrast to national historical narratives taught in Polish
schools. The point of this presentation is to tease out those
aspects of collective memory that address unique concerns of the
so-called ‘autochthons’, the native borderland population of Upper
Silesia. A selection of contemporary Silesian writings (in English
translation) will be scrutinized for memory traces of the partition
that divided Upper Silesia in 1922 and then, in the course of the
20th century, was succeeded by other borders and boundaries in the
region. The presentation will be chaired by Professor Eve Patten,
Director, Trinity Long Room Hub. Leszek Drong is Professor of
Humanities in the Institute of Literary Studies at the University
of Silesia in Katowice. He is also Associate Dean for Research in
the Faculty of Humanities as well as vice-president of the Polish
Association for Irish Studies. Currently, until the end of February
2023, he is a visiting research fellow in the School of English,
Trinity College Dublin. His most recent book was published in 2019:
Tropy konfliktu. Retoryka pamięci kulturowej we współczesnej
powieści północnoirlandzkiej [Troping the Troubles: The Rhetoric of
Cultural Memory in Recent Novels from Northern Ireland]. He has
also published in Orbis Litterarum, Critique: Studies in
Contemporary Fiction and Estudios Irlandeses. His primary research
interest is in the intersection of Irish studies, cultural memory
studies and border studies. His current project, “Remembering
Partitions and Repartitioning Memories in Contemporary Narratives
from Northern Ireland and Upper Silesia,” explores parallels
between the two regional remembrance cultures. Learn more at:
https://www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub/