ABSTRACT
This chapter starts with the traditional polarization into private (family) and public (official) communication, and goes on to recent controversies over pop cultural tendencies in how World War Two (WWII)-knowledge is mediated as part of patriotic formation of the young. It focuses on intergenerational differences in addressing such issues. In keeping with CDS, the chapter examines various sources and data. It draws on a framework known as Critical Discourse Studies (CDS), a family of interdisciplinary approaches to communication that combine discursive and social analyses. The discursive part covers language (verbalizations, texts, and genres), yet it also accommodates social practices that do not centrally involve language. It is important to anchor WWII in a historical model of Polish patriotism, especially as many scholars recognize that the orientation toward the nation's past is a characteristic marker of national thinking among generations of Poles.
