This article presents a qualitative analysis of genre patterns in Indonesian and Polish press death notices. The corpus consists of 2,789 Indonesian obituaries from “Pikiran Rakyat” and “Kompas” (2015–2018), collected during an academic stay in Indonesia, and 13,297 Polish notices from “Gazeta Pomorska” and “Głos Wielkopolski” (2019–2020), gathered upon returning to Poland. Due to the limited availability of Indonesian obituaries, older issues were included, whereas the Polish corpus was restricted to two years due to the abundance of material. The study applies Maria Wojtak’s genre pattern concept, which examines structural, pragmatic, and stylistic organization, as well as cognitive aspects such as topic selection, perspective, value hierarchy, and worldview. The analysis explores how both cultures present information about the deceased, their relationships, and funeral details, shedding light on cultural influences in shaping this genre. While clear structural and stylistic differences exist, cognitive distinctions are less pronounced, as obituaries universally focus on the deceased. However, cultural factors shape key elements, particularly in references to death and religious customs—reflecting Indonesia’s Muslim majority and Poland’s Catholic tradition. A key difference lies in the portrayal of the deceased: Polish obituaries emphasize achievements, character, and personality, whereas Indonesian notices typically mention only age and workplace, with minimal personal details. Beyond its theoretical contributions to genre analysis and cultural studies, this research has practical applications in foreign language teaching (developing genre competence) and translation studies, offering insights into cross-cultural textual conventions and the role of obituaries in collective memory and identity construction.

Authors:
Przemyslaw Wiatrowski, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland

About the Presenter(s)
Prof. UAM dr hab. Przemyslaw Wiatrowski is currently a University Professor of Linguistics at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland

Connect on ResearchGate
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Przemyslaw-Wiatrowski/research

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