Granica etniczna w prasie czeskiej i słowackiej mniejszości narodowej w Polsce

The Ethnic Boundary in the Press of Czech and Slovak Minorities in Poland The preliminary excerption of source materials covered four years of “Život” magazine for Czech and Slovak national minorities in Poland: 1968/1969 and 1992/1993. The selected years were crucial in terms of the context in which the two minorities functioned, as well as the year preceding those events. A juxtaposition of these two periods indicated a clear distinction in the press image of the two minorities between the fixed (during the first analyzed period) and the negotiated (during the second analyzed period) narrative about their ethnic identity. In the materials from the years 1968/1969, the ethnic boundary both between the Czech and the Slovak minorities as well as between those and the host community was not in place – this state of affairs was imposed by the authorities of the host country and sanctioned by law. Only after the functioning of state institutions had changed did a situation occur in which the negotiation of the ethnic boundary became possible – not only between the Czech and Slovak minorities and the majority, but also between the two minorities – which is shown in the 1992 and 1993 press releases. Interestingly, in the press materials from 1968 and 1969 as well as ones from 1992 and 1993, the Slovak minority clearly prevailed over the Czech minority in Poland.