“To provide the right frame for the whole city”. An analysis of press articles devoted to the preparations for the Recovered Territories Exhibition
The article is an attempt to provide a systematic description of journalistic narratives associated with the preparations for the Recovered Territories Exhibition which took place in Wrocław in 1948. In the first part of the article the author examines issues relating to the propaganda of Poland’s post-war authorities, providing a historical introduction to the following discourse analysis. He enumerates the most important reasons why the Polish Workers’ Party was interested in the Recovered Territories as well as the most frequently cited arguments in favour of the “Polishness” of the territories incorporated into Poland after the end of the Second World War.
In the second part of the article the author discusses the results of his analysis of pieces published in the Słowo Polskie daily. The texts have been divided — on the basis of the type of linguistic means used in them — into two overlapping categories. The first concerns the obligation to prepare Wrocław for the Recovered Territories Exhibition by giving the city the right Polish appearance. The second encompasses articles treating the Exhibition as an opportunity to assess the process of re-Polonisation of the Lower Silesian metropolis as the capital of the Recovered Territories.