Abstract

In spring 2016, Poland celebrated the 1050th anniversary of her baptism. The event is considered to be one of the most significant moments in the history of Poland because, with the baptism of Duke Mieszko, Poland left the realm of its undocumented mythical Slavic past and became a building block of Western civilization. In this sense, the 2016 celebration and the presidential speech is argued to be constitutive of the version of national identity promoted by the current state authorities and nation’s leaders. The main celebrations of the year 2016 were held in Poznań (the putative place of the medieval ceremony) where, on April 15th, the National Assembly’s official session took place (for the first time in history outside of Warsaw). The session included a speech by President Andrzej Duda in which not only were the three pillars of Polish identity and culture mentioned (Greek philosophy, Roman legal thought, Christian thought), but also several places in Poland that connect to the history of Christianity in Poland. These selected places (Gniezno, Torun and Frombork, Cracow, Poznan, Czestochowa, Warsaw, Brest-Litovsk) serve as the focus of the present study. Grounded in the paradigms of cognitive linguistics and critical discourse analysis, the examination of the use of the toponyms and histories connected with these places offers an insight into the unique identity of Christian Poland as it is being constructed and promoted by the President of Poland. The study argues that toponyms, in addition to constituting a geographical reference system, can be used as rhetorical devices that create situated meanings and facilitate a move from the local context to wider socio-cultural discourses. Thus, it contributes to research on identity through a textual analysis focused on toponyms as participants and analysts’ resources of identity construction.