Open AccessA Bystander or a (Passive) Witness? A Few Remarks on the Consequences of the Choice of Terminology in Research into the Shoah or the Holocaust
Author(s) -
Bożena Karwowska
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
roczniki humanistyczne
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2544-5200
pISSN - 0035-7707
DOI - 10.18290/rh.2019.67.1-9en
Subject(s) - the holocaust , witness , terminology , perspective (graphical) , sociology , bystander effect , history , epistemology , media studies , aesthetics , linguistics , psychology , social psychology , law , political science , art , philosophy , visual arts
The Polish version of the article was published in Roczniki Humanistyczne vol. 64, issue 1 (2016).
The article is an attempt at an analysis of the usefulness of the concept of “bystander” that is becoming increasingly popular in social sciences, and in modern studies of the Shoah and the Holocaust. The author points to objective terminological dependencies, but she also takes into consideration the differences in the historical and cultural experience that require different perceptions of the role of witnesses in English language discourse and in the East European, and especially Polish, perspective.