“Prudential” – one of first and most well-known skyscrapers of Warsaw – showcases both the power and fragility of architecture as a device of social memory. Upon its completion, the building became an icon of the monumental capital of the thirties, only to achieve status as a symbol of wartime resistance several years later. Reconstructed as an upscale hotel in the postwar People’s Republic of Poland, it gained a decorative entrance with caryatides – a proper ex ample of social realist architecture. The caryatides were demolished Turing refurbishment in the 2010s. The article discusses this act in the wider framework of interferences in the visual sphere and showcases its importance to the politics of memory.
The main aim of this paper is to examine the discourse on Frédéric Chopin that took place in Poland in 1949, when the 100th anniversary of his birth coincided with the culmination of the socialist realist propaganda in the field of Polish culture. The discourse, initiated and moderated under effective surveillance of the Polish People’s Republic’s government, was filled with communist ideology. The authorities aimed at creating a sense of communion in the Polish nation, therefore they undertook numerous actions in the area of cultivating memory of Chopin and reception of his works. The composer was used as a banner under which culture of socialist realism was to be consolidated. Chopin was presented by the narrators in the socialist realist context in various dimensions. “Deep humanism”, “truth”, “optimism”, “sincerity” and “democratic features” of Chopin’s music were the crucial notions used by them. Chopin was depicted, among others, as a revolutionist and a prophet of triumph of communism. The oeuvre of Chopin was said to bring together “fraternal countries and nations”, Polish People’s Republic and Soviet Union, while being simultaneously a crucial element of class conflict. The authorities had a tendency to overemphasize folk roots of his compositions, thus among musical genres composed by Chopin the importance of Mazurka was exaggerated. Other genres without such strong folk connotations, as sonatas, ballades and scherzos, were marginalized in the discourse.
The main aim of this paper is to examine the discourse on Frédéric Chopin that took place in Poland in 1949, when the 100th anniversary of his birth coincided with the culmination of the socialist realist propaganda in the field of Polish culture. The discourse, initiated and moderated under effective surveillance of the Polish People’s Republic’s government, was filled with communist ideology. The authorities aimed at creating a sense of communion in the Polish nation, therefore they undertook numerous actions in the area of cultivating memory of Chopin and reception of his works. The composer was used as a banner under which the culture of socialist realism was to be consolidated. Chopin was presented by the narrators in the socialist realist context in various dimensions. “Deep humanism”, “truth”, “optimism”, “sincerity” and “democratic features” of Chopin’s music were the crucial notions used by them. Chopin was depicted, among others, as a revolutionist and a prophet of triumph of communism. The oeuvre of Chopin was said to bring together “fraternal countries and nations”, Polish People’s Republic and Soviet Union, while being simultaneously a crucial element of class conflict. The authorities had a tendency to overemphasize folk roots of his compositions, thus among musical genres composed by Chopin the importance of Mazurka was exaggerated. Other genres without such strong folk connotations, as sonatas, ballades and scherzos, were marginalized in the discourse.
This is an analysis of the official records of preventive censorship interventions into texts that were to be published in ,,Tygodnik Powszechny” between 1 January 1949 and May 1952. The original files which consist of over 1000 protocols are kept at the Central Archives of Modern Records (AAN). The article identifies the themes and the alleged intent of texts that were either suppressed in their entirety or in parts. It also looks at the justification of the interventions and its characteristic newspeak formulas.Finally, the article considers various strategies of authors seeking to minimalize the censors’ cuts
Artykuł dotyczy pierwszego opublikowanego zbioru opowiadań Stanisława Lema, zatytułowanego Sezam z 1954 roku. Szczegółowa interpretacja cyklu skupia się na przedstawieniu strategii pisarskich stosowanych przez Lema, które umożliwiły sparodiowanie prozy produkcyjnej i antyimperialistycznej jeszcze w czasach stalinowskich. Autorka artykułu wskazała przy tym na politycznie wywrotowe znaczenie Sezamu, umieszczając zbiór wśród utworów zapowiadających odwilż. Ponadto w interpretacji opisane zostały środki stylistyczne (m.in. hiperbola) umożliwiające podjęcie gry z cenzurą, która nie dostrzegła w tym pierwszym zbiorze opowiadań ironicznego dystansu. Artykuł dowodzi, że krytyka imperialnej polityki USA w krótkich opowiadaniach Lema stała się jednocześnie krytyką zimnowojennej polityki ZSRR.
EN
The article analyzes ways in which Stanislaw Lem’s short stories collected in Sezam i inne opowiadania [Sesame and Other Stories] (first published in 1954) are a parody and satire on the imperialistic policies of both the USA and the Soviet Union. Parody and satire are discussed against a comparative background of specific examples of contemporary Polish and foreign literary works and with reference to the findings of Polish and international literary studies. As a result, the author postulates in the article that new politically subversive meanings of the stories unravel. Another issue considered in the analysis is Lem’s dexterous play with censorship by means of irony and parody (especially by hyperbolizing) thanks to which Polish censorship completely failed to decipher this double-dealing. The author comes to the conclusion that the criticism of imperial politics of the US in Lem’s short stories in question turns out to be a critique of the cold war politics of the Soviet Union as well.
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