Publications

Publication details [#56013]

Grimstad, Knut Andreas. 2012. What Europe means for Poland. The front-page coverage of Independence Day in Gazeta Wyborcza 1989–2009. In Sarić, Ljiljana, Karen Gammelgaard and Kjetil Rå Hauge, eds. Transforming National Holidays. Identity discourse in the West and South Slavic countries, 1985-2010. John Benjamins. pp. 271–296.
Publication type
Article in book
Publication language
English
Language as a subject
Place, Publisher
John Benjamins

Annotation

This paper examines one of Poland’s most influential newspapers, Gazeta Wyborcza, and its front-page coverage of what is arguably the country’s most popular national holiday, Independence Day. Specific attention is given to how Gazeta’s writers discursively constructed a Polishness compatible with European values, both before and after the country’s EU admission. Within the newspaper’s Euro-Polish identity project, they reinforced the idea of a common past, present, and future, while introducing a concept of European supranationalism that, however, did not replace but instead served to complement Polish nationalism. Insofar as Gazeta gives space to many different voices, including those of its Euro-skeptic adversaries, its predominant strategy is one of inclusion.