The Art of Commemoration focuses on a particular historical event that illustrates how nations define their own identities and establish mutual relations in their discourse: the Warsaw Uprising of August 1944 and its Commemoration in 1994. This Commemoration was an innovative and unique form of transnational communication because it brought together representative speakers from all parties involved. They considered the commemorated event from different perspectives: the victim (Poland), the former enemy (Germany) and the former allies (England, USA, France and other countries, as well as Russia which liberated Poland but had not supported the Uprising). A letter from the Pope added a Catholic perspective. The ‘art of commemoration’ consists in invoking the past events from one’s own perspective while simultaneously considering the other perspectives, as well as in making sense of the past and present at the same time. This volume analyses the artful way in which the speakers coped with these complexities in a full discourse analytic reconstruction of each address.

Table of contents

Preface viii 1. Facing the past: The commemoration of the Warsaw Uprising on the occasion of its Fiftieth anniversary Titus Ensink and Christoph Sauer 1 2. A discourse analytic approach to the commemorative speeches about the Warsaw Uprising Titus Ensink and Christoph Sauer 19 3. The Messianic Warsaw: Mythological framings of political discourse in the address by Lech Wałęsa Dariusz Galasiński 41 4. The search for acceptable perspectives: German President Roman Herzog commemorates the Warsaw Uprising Titus Ensink and Christoph Sauer 57 5. A politician’s sociology: US Vice President Gore’s categorisation of the participants in the Warsaw Uprising Harrie Mazeland 95 6. Framing the past: An analysis of John Major’s address Christina Schäffner 116 7. From commemoration to self-celebration: Explorations in the interplay of discourse frames and political perspectives in the address by René Monory Danièle Torck 141 8. How the Russians handled a problem: The Warsaw Uprising in Sergey Filatov’s address Klaus Steinke 173 9. Merging frames: A frame analysis of the South African, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand addresses Tom Koole 193 10. Pope John Paul II as a Polish Patriot: The Pope’s letter in commemoration of the Warsaw Uprising Klaus Steinke 212 11. The politics of public memory: The commemoration of the Second World War in a historical and comparative perspective Frank van Vree 223 Index