1. Memorial plaques – small forms of collective memory
Małgorzata Fabiszak
&
Anna Weronika Brzezińska

2. Theoretical background
Ritual & ceremony
Group unity & identity
Collective vs. collected memory
Durkheim (1915) Halbwachs (1992) Olick (1999)

3. Figures of memory
Metonymic triggers of c. memory
(J. Assmann 2010)

4. Research goals
to develop a systematic method of semiotic analysis of memorial plaques as a specific genre of figures of memory
want to answer the question to what extent are the Jewish and German citizens of Poznań from before the WWII commemorated in the Poznan memorial landscape by means of commemoration plaques.
At the methodological level, it aims to develop a systematic method of semiotic analysis of memorial plaques as a specific genre of figures of memory. At the descriptive level, we want to answer the question to what extent are the Jewish and German citizens of Poznań from before the WWII commemorated in the Poznan memorial landscape by means of commemoration plaques.

5. Memorial plaques – method of selection
Linguistic landscape methodology
Tourist route through the Old Town, the Emperial Quarter, the Citadel
So far 42 plaques from the Old Town

6. Analytic categories Socio-political context Local context of placement
Material features
Textual analysis
Year of dedication
Position
Material
Memory figure
Founder
Other elements of the context
Shape
Commemorated period
Other plaques
Ornaments
Language of inscription
Lettering

7. Paganini / Liszt / Wieniawski gave concerts here
Position: slightly above eye level, easy to read Shape: rectangular Material: concrete Ornaments: two violins and a piano Memory figure: musicians/concerts Language: Polish

8. Robert Remak – a doctor and scientist of three nations: Jewish, Polish, German
Year of dedication: 26th of sept Founder: PTHMiF (Polish Society of the History of Medicine and Pharmacy) Position: Well above human height Elements of context: On the building of the State Archive, opposite the building, in which he lived Material: concrete Shape: rectangular Ornaments: portrait medalion, lilliy of the valley Lg of inscription: Polish, Hebrew, German

9. Elements of context

10. Krzysztof Komeda Trzciński
Ornament: portrait in base relief; piano keys of uneven size – visual metonymy for syncopation – metonymy for jazz

11. Jan Paderewski
Year of dedication: [1928] 1978 – memory of memory Founders: an association of the societies of the participants of the uprising in Wielkopolska vs. Wielkopolska society Topos of gemeinschaft Topos of homogeneity

12. The (in)visible plaque
Ul. Podgórna – Karol Marcinkowski lived here – commemorated with a plaque 1847 – Paul von Hindenburg was born here (plaque )

13. Former Evangelical House
City Information System
Information not commemoration plaque
Material: plexi
Remembering but not commemorating

14. Concluding remarks – 1/2 The analytic grid:
Position and elements of the context
Material: the meanings of concrete
Founders: societies vs. the society
Year of dedication: peaks in the 1950s (4), 1980s (5) and 2000s (3) (25 nd)
Commemorated Period: Partitions (19), Wielkopolska Uprising (6), post WWII (6) (Warning: the Citadel not included yet) …

15. Concluding remarks 2/2 Who and what do we commemorate on the plaques:
5x musicians (Paderewski, Paganini, Wieniawski, Liszt, Komeda), 4x doctors (Marcinkowski, Struś, Chróściejowski, Remak), 4x writers (Sienkiewiczx2, Kraszewski, Fiedler), 2x social activists (Cegielski, Jaśkowiak, Szulc), 2x architects (Quadro, Zieliński), 1 bookseller (Żupański), 2x soldiers (Dąbrowski, Wybicki, Leszczyński)
2x Jewish history (Remak, the Holocaust)
Prussian past remembered but not commemorated (information vs. Commemoration plaque)

16. “Collective memory, collective identity and urban landscape: A case study of Poznan” Grant number 2013/09/B/HS6/00374 financed by the National Science Centre The project is conducted in a collaboration between Faculty of English, AMU and Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, AMU

18. Some references
Carr, Gillian “Examining the memorialscape of occupation and liberation:A case study from the Channel Islands”. International Journal of Heritage Studies DOI: /
Durkheim, Émile The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. Translated by Joseph Ward Swain. London: George, Allen and Unwin.
Halbwachs, Maurice The Collective memory. Translated by Francis J. Ditter Jr and Vida Yazdi Ditter. New York: Harper and Row.
Kazimierczak, Jarosław “Memorial plaques and monuments in Łódź-Śródmieście (the city centre district) commemorating people and events from the history of the city.” Tourism 20/1:
Kempa, Andrzej – Marta Zawadzka Tablice Pamięci. Łódź: Wojewódzka i Miejska Biblioteka Publiczna im. Marszałka Józefa Piłsudskiego w Łodzi.
Olick, Jeffrey K “Collective memory: The two cultures”. Sociological Theory 17(3):