Prawda archiwów

Abstract

The article attempts at answering the following questions concerning the category of “the truth of the archives” which provides the basis for the functioning of the Institute of the National Remembrance in Poland: how has it been constructed? Through which practices is it expressed? And what is it used for? A very specific role played in this context by the “ontic dimension” related to the materiality of testimonies, suggests that by introducing the category of truth the INR works rather with objects than with meanings according to the logic of Lévi-Straussian bricolege. In this respect the INR can be analysed as the residuum of the mythic thinking, which in turn allows for showing not only how the truth is being created in and by contemporary archives but also how the demand for truth or even the will of truth are being designed.