This paper is concerned with what I would like to call provincial memory. A century ago Northern Ireland was established as a statelet (also commonly referred to as the Province) within the United Kingdom; meanwhile, in Upper Silesia, a Plebiscite was held to determine the national identifications of its inhabitants. Consequently, 1921 proved to be a momentous and memorable year for both provinces. In the following years the border between Northern Ireland and the Free Irish State came into effect while Upper Silesia was divided between two countries: Germany and Poland. The border in Upper Silesia, alongside other local borders defining the region, evolved over the years to disappear altogether following WWII. Its disappearance from the maps, however, did not reduce divisions as well as social, cultural and ethnic differences characteristic of the region's population. The brewing conflicts on the borders, and over the borders, of Upper Silesia, reminiscent of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, have inspired many writers connected with the region. Likewise, in Northern Ireland, the border has proved to be a powerful cultural challenge. Against the political background of the Brexit referendum and "the shambles" of the negotiations between the UK and the EU (Michel Barnier's word), recent writings from the Province address the antagonisms of the past century mostly in the spirit of reconciliation and mutual respect (the notorious "parity of esteem") for the differences and borders that the two major communities (i.e. nationalists and unionists) are not prepared to cross.
Just as geopolitical borders are arbitrary social constructs, borderlines depicted in fiction inspire reflection on the nature and origins of divisions within societies. By exploring David Park's Travelling in a Strange Land and Darren Anderson's Inventory, this paper seeks to take stock of both unique and universal qualities of the Irish border (especially near Derry/Londonderry). As their Silesian counterparts, such novels as Drach and Pokora by Szczepan Twardoch will illustrate the intricacies of remembering and forgetting ethnic narratives of identity and belonging. In Upper Silesia, the issue of self-identification is inextricably interwoven with the geopolitical transformations of the region. Ultimately, borderland communities, like Upper Silesians in the XX and XXI centuries, are more likely to relate to the anxieties and traumas experienced by the survivors of Brexit in Ireland. Transcultural and transborder memory studies, in turn, are a uniquely useful instrument for accounting for the transformations and evolution of ethnic identity narratives in such regions as Northern Ireland and Upper Silesia. In conclusion, I explain what constitutes the cultural parameters of provincial memory in NI and US.
