Niezrealizowane spotkanie kultur, czyli przewodnik-archiwum po Wilnie Zelmana Szyka na tle polskiego dyskursu krajoznawczego

ENThis article explores shifting perceptions of multiculturalism from the mid-nineteenth century until World War II. A survey of tourist guidebooks to Vilnius published between 1856 and 1939 shows that Polish local history discourse was characterised by growing nationalist patriotism, ethnocentrism and national megalomania. Zelman Szyk’s Yiddish Toyznt yor Vilne (1939) appears all the more unique against this backdrop. Although it was never used as a guidebook it now functions as an archive of Vilnius, a city that underwent radical transformations as a result of the war, Shoah and violent political changes. Szyk is remarkably open to different models of historical memory and of interpreting urban space. He paints an eminently multicultural picture of Vilnius, taking into account all ethnic groups and giving an unprejudiced portrait of their heritage. At the same time he depicts the Polish impact on the cityscape in more detail than the Polish-langue guides. Keywords: Vilnius, Jews in Vilnius, city guidebooks, Zelman Szyk, Adam Honory Kirkor, Juliusz Klos, multiculturalism, ethnocentrism, localy history discourse. [From the publication]

• How to explore Vilnius? To know and to see: proposals by Kirkor (1856) and Bułhak (1936) / Anna Gomóła. Lietuvos etnologija. 2023, 23 (32), p. 26-46.
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