ABSTRACT
The data on which this chapter is based was collected in Görlitz and Zgorzelec, two towns on the River Neisse, Görlitz on the West bank and thus in the Federal Republic of Germany, Zgorzelec on the East bank and so in Poland. It focuses on what emerged as a central narrative amongst the people from three generations who live in these communities on either side of the border. The chapter also focuses on the ways in which people living in these border communities locate and identify themselves both explicitly and implicitly in relation to the spaces around them. It explores the ways in which the informants in the two towns on the Polish-German border weave their notions of domicile into their discursive constructions of identity. The chapter discusses some paradoxical aspects to the data concerning narratives of loss and truncation and the use of national labels. On the Polish side this paradox lies in the cultural evaluation of urban space.
