Everyone? On Majority Discourse in the One-Day Publication “Alma Mater Vilnensis” (1922)

Abstract

The article serves as an introduction to a broader investigation into exclusionary discourses in academic periodicals published in Vilnius during the interwar period. The author focuses on a close reading of the one-day publication “Alma Mater Vilnensis” (1922), which marked the beginning of a periodical that appeared (irregularly) until 1935. The texts featured in this almanac reveal a particular understanding of the pronoun “everyone,” framed within the idea of a university intended to serve all students. However, it becomes evident that the term should be interpreted as referring to the “majority,” with “minority” functioning as its antonym. The case of this ephemeral publication—read today against the backdrop of antisemitic incidents at Polish universities in the 1920s—demonstrates the early stages of the collapse of the academic “community” in Vilnius. Jewish students quickly vanish from the host discourse—that of the Polish majority. When they do appear, it is solely as subjects of violence, as evidenced by the exclusionary rhetoric of the analyzed texts.