The Reception of Galicia in Modern Polish Historiography

Abstract

The article presents the most important research trends in contemporary Polish historiography that affect the reception of Galicia as a place that not only was the Austrian partition, but that was also part of the Habsburg Monarchy. In the first part of the article the author presents the works and historians who have contributed most to the development of the Galician historiography, and then discusses the most important research centers dealing with the history of Galicia after 1989. In the second part of the article, devoted to the analysis of the contemporary Galician historiographical discourse, selected examples illustrate how the reception of Galicia has been influenced by the books of Norman Davies, Waldemar Łazuga and Danuta Sosnowska. The first case serves to examine the myth of the “Galician misery.” The second one illustrates the reception of the Stanczyk argument on the rebirth of Galicia as a result of breaking up with the politics of romanticism. The third successfully applies the postcolonial theory and opens new expectations for further research.