The Multivoicedness of Historical Representations in a Changing Sociocultural Context: Young Polish Adults' Representations of World War II

Abstract

This article deals with the problem of the formation of historical representation from the perspective of mediational means and mediated action. According to this approach, mental representations emerge as a result of individuals' actions performed with mediational means such as language. These mediational means are provided by the sociocultural setting in which individuals function. The article analyses the impact that recent profound political, economic, social and cultural changes which have taken place in Eastern Europe have had on the formation of historical representation. The sociocultural changes involved are illustrated by changes in the official account of important historical events as presented in high school textbooks. The historical representations of individuals are examined through an analysis of essays about World War II written by 21 undergraduate students in 1992. Several narrative elements were identified and analysed. The results indicate that the subjects' representations of World War II were rather poorly organized and that elements of the official history continue to prevail in them. A few narrative elements from what was unofficial history during the socialist period were incorporated into official history, but they were the exception and were not well integrated into the structure of the texts produced by the subjects. It is concluded that the representations of social phenomena such as historical events are formed with the use of mediational means available in a given sociocultural setting and that it may be quite difficult to restructure these mediational means when the sociocultural setting undergoes rapid change.

Keywords

mediation mediational means representation sociocultural text

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