This study collects oral histories in intersubjective methods.
Grounded methods allowed for themes to emerge
that revealed strategies of self-definition
expressed by
survivors of ethnic cleansing. The discussion draws on
interdisciplinary literature to broaden the scholarly focus
from bounded wholes to historical experience. Political
scientists convincingly define Silesia as ethnicity and
geographical areas in Europe today, yet this anthropological
study focuses on the effects of history (sensu
Foucault 1972) as experienced, especially emotionally
and traumatically, when geopolitical powers divided families
into those who stayed and those forced to leave.
The discursive field and historical experience of Silesia
is vast. An innovative methodology, the ethnography of
historical experience, allows for people’s experiences of
geopolitical boundaries and nation–states to emerge.
Themes that emerge distinguish this discursive field in
its polyvocality and heteroglossia as creole and multilingual
people who experience the imposition of nation–
states repeatedly in history. Intersubjective methods
change the subjectivity and singing voice of the text
author over the long period of this study, and the silent
space of trauma is mutually revoiced. Theory from interdisciplinary
fields contextualizes the empirical evidence
after the themes emerged.