Pub Date : 2022-05-17DOI: 10.1080/14790963.2022.2069971
Ádám Schwarczwölder
Abstract In getting his career in public service off the ground, the talented and ever-ready Kálmán Széll (1843–1915), was helped significantly by his influential father József Széll’s (1801–1871) social network, specifically his close relationship with Ferenc Deák. Deák, the emblematic figure of the 1867 Settlement had known the Széll boys since they were children. However, Kálmán Széll’s relationship to Deák was truly solidified in autumn 1867, when he married Ilona Vörösmarty, the daughter of one of the most popular poets in Hungary and the ward of Deák, who had taken responsibility for the girl’s wellbeing in 1855, upon the death of her father Mihály Vörösmarty.Did young Széll’s career take off in 1867–1868 because of the wedding and his closeness to Deák, or would it have occurred irrespective? Providing a completely objective answer to this complicated question is of course impossible, but by analyzing the antecedents, circumstances and consequences of the marriage, we are able to provide a more nuanced picture. No doubt Széll’s career path was made smoother by his close relationship to Deák, which, provided the opportunity for fast career advancement. However, without talent, determination and hard work, he would not have been able to endure the trials and tribulations of Hungarian national politics. Our best course of action is to take the two extreme positions – well-connected careerist versus the “up by the bootstraps” self-made man – and placing Kálmán Széll as close to the center as possible.
{"title":"Family Background, Preparation and Opportunity: The Making of the Dualist-Era Hungarian Minister, Kálmán Széll","authors":"Ádám Schwarczwölder","doi":"10.1080/14790963.2022.2069971","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14790963.2022.2069971","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In getting his career in public service off the ground, the talented and ever-ready Kálmán Széll (1843–1915), was helped significantly by his influential father József Széll’s (1801–1871) social network, specifically his close relationship with Ferenc Deák. Deák, the emblematic figure of the 1867 Settlement had known the Széll boys since they were children. However, Kálmán Széll’s relationship to Deák was truly solidified in autumn 1867, when he married Ilona Vörösmarty, the daughter of one of the most popular poets in Hungary and the ward of Deák, who had taken responsibility for the girl’s wellbeing in 1855, upon the death of her father Mihály Vörösmarty.Did young Széll’s career take off in 1867–1868 because of the wedding and his closeness to Deák, or would it have occurred irrespective? Providing a completely objective answer to this complicated question is of course impossible, but by analyzing the antecedents, circumstances and consequences of the marriage, we are able to provide a more nuanced picture. No doubt Széll’s career path was made smoother by his close relationship to Deák, which, provided the opportunity for fast career advancement. However, without talent, determination and hard work, he would not have been able to endure the trials and tribulations of Hungarian national politics. Our best course of action is to take the two extreme positions – well-connected careerist versus the “up by the bootstraps” self-made man – and placing Kálmán Széll as close to the center as possible.","PeriodicalId":41396,"journal":{"name":"Central Europe","volume":"11 1","pages":"45 - 66"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-05-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80117707","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-11DOI: 10.1080/14790963.2022.2070835
Thomas Lorman
Russian President Vladimir Putin has supported this brutal violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty by outlandish historical claims, denying a Ukrainian national identity. In fact, Ukraine’s distinct language and culture date back over many centuries. Ukraine has been a crossroads of the region, connected to countries and cultures to the west as well as Russia to its east. This is why, ever since this journal was founded twenty years ago it has included Ukraine in Central Europe and has frequently published articles on Ukrainian history, culture and literature. It will continue to do so.
{"title":"Statement by the Editorial Board on the War in Ukraine","authors":"Thomas Lorman","doi":"10.1080/14790963.2022.2070835","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14790963.2022.2070835","url":null,"abstract":"Russian President Vladimir Putin has supported this brutal violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty by outlandish historical claims, denying a Ukrainian national identity. In fact, Ukraine’s distinct language and culture date back over many centuries. Ukraine has been a crossroads of the region, connected to countries and cultures to the west as well as Russia to its east. This is why, ever since this journal was founded twenty years ago it has included Ukraine in Central Europe and has frequently published articles on Ukrainian history, culture and literature. It will continue to do so.","PeriodicalId":41396,"journal":{"name":"Central Europe","volume":"7 1","pages":"67 - 67"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-05-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79169321","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-04-18DOI: 10.1080/14790963.2022.2062999
T. Dickins
Abstract This article presents a detailed analysis of the defining linguistic features and functions of anti-regime Czech-language slogans from 1948 to 1989 – their style, tropes, referents and intertextual allusions. The study employs a mixed methodology, combining quantitative and qualitative approaches with empirically based historical research. The application of different linguistic models and tools (Leech’s language functions, Jakobson’s communication functions, Austin’s speech act theory, Halliday’s conceptualization of register, and data-informed discourse analysis), together with a range of documentary evidence, allows for the identification of characteristics and trends in their broader synchronic and diachronic context. The analysis draws on an extensive list of oral and written examples, taken from a variety of sources, and places a strong emphasis on the interface between linguistic and extra-linguistic activity. It is argued that many of the opposition slogans had their origins in popular, collective folk traditions, and bore the hallmark of those traditions stylistically and semantically. The counter slogans tended to be pithy, spontaneous and reactive, and frequently had an affective aesthetic quality, which was characterized by language play, catchy rhythm and rhyme. The accessibility and creativity of the expressions of dissent, which stood in contrast to the woodenness of the official propaganda, added to the impact of the protesters’ grievances and demands. While the chants and inscriptions may not necessarily have achieved their desired outcomes, they nonetheless played a significant symbolic role in subverting the Communist Party’s authoritative discourse. Moreover, the interactional aspect of the protest helped to forge a common identity outside the constraints of the imposed norms, which may have sometimes been more important to the participants than either the message or the medium of the slogans.
{"title":"The Language and Functions of Czech Counter Slogans: 1948 to 1989","authors":"T. Dickins","doi":"10.1080/14790963.2022.2062999","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14790963.2022.2062999","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article presents a detailed analysis of the defining linguistic features and functions of anti-regime Czech-language slogans from 1948 to 1989 – their style, tropes, referents and intertextual allusions. The study employs a mixed methodology, combining quantitative and qualitative approaches with empirically based historical research. The application of different linguistic models and tools (Leech’s language functions, Jakobson’s communication functions, Austin’s speech act theory, Halliday’s conceptualization of register, and data-informed discourse analysis), together with a range of documentary evidence, allows for the identification of characteristics and trends in their broader synchronic and diachronic context. The analysis draws on an extensive list of oral and written examples, taken from a variety of sources, and places a strong emphasis on the interface between linguistic and extra-linguistic activity. It is argued that many of the opposition slogans had their origins in popular, collective folk traditions, and bore the hallmark of those traditions stylistically and semantically. The counter slogans tended to be pithy, spontaneous and reactive, and frequently had an affective aesthetic quality, which was characterized by language play, catchy rhythm and rhyme. The accessibility and creativity of the expressions of dissent, which stood in contrast to the woodenness of the official propaganda, added to the impact of the protesters’ grievances and demands. While the chants and inscriptions may not necessarily have achieved their desired outcomes, they nonetheless played a significant symbolic role in subverting the Communist Party’s authoritative discourse. Moreover, the interactional aspect of the protest helped to forge a common identity outside the constraints of the imposed norms, which may have sometimes been more important to the participants than either the message or the medium of the slogans.","PeriodicalId":41396,"journal":{"name":"Central Europe","volume":"32 1","pages":"1 - 28"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82686139","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-03DOI: 10.1080/14790963.2021.2035639
Simon Lewis
ABSTRACT This article explores the significance of orientalism as a cultural phenomenon in Polish literature and culture at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Intervening in a long-standing debate about whether orientalism in Poland was an original phenomenon or a ‘derivative and imitative’ discourse, the article offers close readings of two cultural phenomena that show that the application of such binaries is overly reductive. Rather, orientalist inspirations in Poland were multi-layered: inspiration from western European orientalism mixed with Poland’s own historical ‘easternness’, especially in the heterogeneous contact zone of what is now Ukraine. Analysis of Edward Raczyński’s (1786–1845) 1821 account of his journey to Turkey, and of the life and cultural legend of Wacław Seweryn Rzewuski (1784–1831), shows that Ukraine was a site of overlapping orientalist projections in the Polish cultural imagination in the decades following the Partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
{"title":"East Is East? Polish Orientalisms in the Early Nineteenth Century","authors":"Simon Lewis","doi":"10.1080/14790963.2021.2035639","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14790963.2021.2035639","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article explores the significance of orientalism as a cultural phenomenon in Polish literature and culture at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Intervening in a long-standing debate about whether orientalism in Poland was an original phenomenon or a ‘derivative and imitative’ discourse, the article offers close readings of two cultural phenomena that show that the application of such binaries is overly reductive. Rather, orientalist inspirations in Poland were multi-layered: inspiration from western European orientalism mixed with Poland’s own historical ‘easternness’, especially in the heterogeneous contact zone of what is now Ukraine. Analysis of Edward Raczyński’s (1786–1845) 1821 account of his journey to Turkey, and of the life and cultural legend of Wacław Seweryn Rzewuski (1784–1831), shows that Ukraine was a site of overlapping orientalist projections in the Polish cultural imagination in the decades following the Partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.","PeriodicalId":41396,"journal":{"name":"Central Europe","volume":"38 1","pages":"135 - 152"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88771711","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-03DOI: 10.1080/14790963.2021.2018640
Radosław Żurawski Vel Grajewski
ABSTRACT This article examines Polish participation in the Eastern Question in the nineteenth century. In particular, it explores the intensive links between the idea of restoring independent Poland and the rivalry of the European powers as they sought to influence the Ottoman Empire. The most active Polish political group known as the Hôtel Lambert – leaded by Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski – devoted considerable effort, especially in the 1830s, to convince the British and French governments, that a positive solution of the Polish question was an indispensable condition of resolving the Eastern Question. Polish diplomacy also supported the Caucasian highlanders against Russia till 1864, developed close relations with the Balkan Slavs (Serbs, Croats, Bulgarians) and Romanians and tried to be a useful ally of the Western powers during Crimean War. Nevertheless, the idea of gaining tangible support for the Polish cause by linking it with the Eastern Question proved ineffective, although it did help the Poles to keep attract the attention of both European statesmen and public opinion till at least the end of 1870’s.
{"title":"The Polish Émigrés and the Eastern Question in the Nineteenth Century","authors":"Radosław Żurawski Vel Grajewski","doi":"10.1080/14790963.2021.2018640","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14790963.2021.2018640","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article examines Polish participation in the Eastern Question in the nineteenth century. In particular, it explores the intensive links between the idea of restoring independent Poland and the rivalry of the European powers as they sought to influence the Ottoman Empire. The most active Polish political group known as the Hôtel Lambert – leaded by Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski – devoted considerable effort, especially in the 1830s, to convince the British and French governments, that a positive solution of the Polish question was an indispensable condition of resolving the Eastern Question. Polish diplomacy also supported the Caucasian highlanders against Russia till 1864, developed close relations with the Balkan Slavs (Serbs, Croats, Bulgarians) and Romanians and tried to be a useful ally of the Western powers during Crimean War. Nevertheless, the idea of gaining tangible support for the Polish cause by linking it with the Eastern Question proved ineffective, although it did help the Poles to keep attract the attention of both European statesmen and public opinion till at least the end of 1870’s.","PeriodicalId":41396,"journal":{"name":"Central Europe","volume":"38 1","pages":"89 - 115"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89054273","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-03DOI: 10.1080/14790963.2021.2018641
Piotr Kuligowski
ABSTRACT The primary aim of this article is to investigate the debates among those radicals who found themselves in exile after the failure of the Polish November Uprising (1830–1831) about whether a new national war was necessary. Instead of dealing with their reflections on warfare, I focus on the political dimension of these debates, and in particular on their ideas about mobilization during wartime. The first part of the article sketches out the general context of these reflections, stressing the deep roots of the debates about ‘citizen-soldiers’ and mass military mobilization. The second part examines the Polish radicals’ sometimes contentious debates during the 1830s, which focused on the reasons for the failure of the November Uprising, the lessons that needed to be learned, and the means by which the peasantry could be included into both military ranks and the political sphere. The principal forum for these discussions was leaflets and articles. The third part concentrates on their disputes during the 1840s. This decade was marked by the particular intensity of these polemics as the radicals confronted, amongst other issues, the question of revolutionary terrorism and mass democracy during the (supposedly impending) war. The article concludes by recapitulating the main features of these debates, and clarifies that there was only a bare thread of continuity between the radicals from the 1830s and 1840s and those who mulled over similar issues in the second part of the 19th century.
{"title":"Planning an Uprising; Remaking a Nation: The Polish Radicals’ Debates on the Army and War in 1832-1846 Revisited","authors":"Piotr Kuligowski","doi":"10.1080/14790963.2021.2018641","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14790963.2021.2018641","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The primary aim of this article is to investigate the debates among those radicals who found themselves in exile after the failure of the Polish November Uprising (1830–1831) about whether a new national war was necessary. Instead of dealing with their reflections on warfare, I focus on the political dimension of these debates, and in particular on their ideas about mobilization during wartime. The first part of the article sketches out the general context of these reflections, stressing the deep roots of the debates about ‘citizen-soldiers’ and mass military mobilization. The second part examines the Polish radicals’ sometimes contentious debates during the 1830s, which focused on the reasons for the failure of the November Uprising, the lessons that needed to be learned, and the means by which the peasantry could be included into both military ranks and the political sphere. The principal forum for these discussions was leaflets and articles. The third part concentrates on their disputes during the 1840s. This decade was marked by the particular intensity of these polemics as the radicals confronted, amongst other issues, the question of revolutionary terrorism and mass democracy during the (supposedly impending) war. The article concludes by recapitulating the main features of these debates, and clarifies that there was only a bare thread of continuity between the radicals from the 1830s and 1840s and those who mulled over similar issues in the second part of the 19th century.","PeriodicalId":41396,"journal":{"name":"Central Europe","volume":"20 1","pages":"116 - 134"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80826146","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-01-02DOI: 10.1080/14790963.2021.1920134
Beata Bielska
ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to analyse the political outcomes of the LGBT* movement in Poland, referring to civil unions, marriage equality, adoption, homophobic and transphobic hate crimes and Gender Recognition Act. I argue that the movement has become a recognizable political actor but has not achieved any legislative goal. It is based on an extensive qualitative research project conducted between 2013 and 2016, but includes also the newest information about the context and the movement. Methodologically it is situated in the critical orientation in sociology and theoretically in the field of social movement studies. Respondent’s comments on the conclusions are also presented.
{"title":"‘How Does the Movement Work? Above All, Inefficiently’. Political Outcomes of the Polish LGBT* Movement","authors":"Beata Bielska","doi":"10.1080/14790963.2021.1920134","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14790963.2021.1920134","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to analyse the political outcomes of the LGBT* movement in Poland, referring to civil unions, marriage equality, adoption, homophobic and transphobic hate crimes and Gender Recognition Act. I argue that the movement has become a recognizable political actor but has not achieved any legislative goal. It is based on an extensive qualitative research project conducted between 2013 and 2016, but includes also the newest information about the context and the movement. Methodologically it is situated in the critical orientation in sociology and theoretically in the field of social movement studies. Respondent’s comments on the conclusions are also presented.","PeriodicalId":41396,"journal":{"name":"Central Europe","volume":"269-270 1","pages":"14 - 26"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79097024","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-01-02DOI: 10.1080/14790963.2021.1920131
U. Chowaniec, E. Mazierska, Richard Mole
This special issue emerged from the largest-ever international conference on Polish gender issues outside of Poland, The Impacts of Gender Discourse on Polish Politics, Society and Culture, organized by Ula Chowaniec, Ewa Mazierska and Richard Mole and held at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, on 11–12 June 2018. As can be seen from the group photo at the end of this introduction, the conference was very well attended, suggesting that gender studies, LGBTQ+ discourses and feminist movements in Poland are flourishing. It was also a year in which we celebrated 100 years of Polish women’s suffrage (hence the #naukaniepodległa/independent education on the banner in the photo from the conference at the end of this introduction). Nevertheless, the actual papers revealed that the mood was not optimistic. The nationalist politics and rhetoric of the governing Law and Justice Party (PiS) has exerted a negative impact on openness towards queer culture and the acceptance of LGBTQ+ rights within Polish society. As we prepared this volume for publication, we followed the discourse surrounding the presidential election in Poland (28 June and 12 July 2020), in which homophobic discourse was employed to appeal to the more conservative section of the population. During the presidential campaign, the LGBTQ+ communities’ language and rights were presented as a threat to a healthy Polish society. The most conspicuous sign of this hostile approach was the creation of public ‘LGBT-free zones/strefy wolne of ideologii LGBT’ in approximately 100 cities and towns in Poland. The topic of queer politics and culture in Poland has been the subject of numerous events at University College London in the last few years. During 2017 several events took place, which discussed gender and LGBTQ rights in a changing Europe and elaborated upon the impact of Brexit on the queer communities from Poland. Among the invited guests and authors were Izabela Morska, one of the first openly lesbian authors in Poland, who spoke about her research and the situation for queer people in contemporary
{"title":"Queer(in)g Poland in the 21st Century: How Was It at the Beginning of the Millennium? Introduction to This Special Issue on Queer Culture and the LGBTQ+ Movement in Poland","authors":"U. Chowaniec, E. Mazierska, Richard Mole","doi":"10.1080/14790963.2021.1920131","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14790963.2021.1920131","url":null,"abstract":"This special issue emerged from the largest-ever international conference on Polish gender issues outside of Poland, The Impacts of Gender Discourse on Polish Politics, Society and Culture, organized by Ula Chowaniec, Ewa Mazierska and Richard Mole and held at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, on 11–12 June 2018. As can be seen from the group photo at the end of this introduction, the conference was very well attended, suggesting that gender studies, LGBTQ+ discourses and feminist movements in Poland are flourishing. It was also a year in which we celebrated 100 years of Polish women’s suffrage (hence the #naukaniepodległa/independent education on the banner in the photo from the conference at the end of this introduction). Nevertheless, the actual papers revealed that the mood was not optimistic. The nationalist politics and rhetoric of the governing Law and Justice Party (PiS) has exerted a negative impact on openness towards queer culture and the acceptance of LGBTQ+ rights within Polish society. As we prepared this volume for publication, we followed the discourse surrounding the presidential election in Poland (28 June and 12 July 2020), in which homophobic discourse was employed to appeal to the more conservative section of the population. During the presidential campaign, the LGBTQ+ communities’ language and rights were presented as a threat to a healthy Polish society. The most conspicuous sign of this hostile approach was the creation of public ‘LGBT-free zones/strefy wolne of ideologii LGBT’ in approximately 100 cities and towns in Poland. The topic of queer politics and culture in Poland has been the subject of numerous events at University College London in the last few years. During 2017 several events took place, which discussed gender and LGBTQ rights in a changing Europe and elaborated upon the impact of Brexit on the queer communities from Poland. Among the invited guests and authors were Izabela Morska, one of the first openly lesbian authors in Poland, who spoke about her research and the situation for queer people in contemporary","PeriodicalId":41396,"journal":{"name":"Central Europe","volume":"41 1","pages":"1 - 13"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80405347","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-01-02DOI: 10.1080/14790963.2021.1921996
Rafał Morusiewicz
ABSTRACT The search for queer/queerable moments in the post-1989 Polish cinema is a frustrating feat. While increasingly featuring LGBTQ+ characters, especially in the current decade, Polish cinema films rarely break away from heteronormative and, less frequently, homonormative stereotypization, which takes on a limited range of offensive or empathetic manifestations. The former, represented by low-brow comedies, such as Weekend (dir. Cezary Pazura, 2010) and Sex Change (dir. Konrad Aksinowicz, 2009), would continue the infamous tendency of cis-male filmmakers to poke fun at anal sex and dildos, which they apparently identify as representative of non-heteronormative sexual practices and behaviours. The latter, usually featuring one or two gay or lesbian characters in the roles of sidekicks to the protagonists, would constitute sympathetic responses to socio-political situations of LGBTQ individuals in Poland, marked by homophobia, coming-out hardship, and/or heavily non-egalitarian legislation in Poland. Yet, in the early 2010s, a few cinema films brought about cracks in the dominating trend, proposing instead multi-layered though heavily ambiguous studies of non-heteronormative characters living in contemporary Poland. Suicide Room (dir. Jan Komasa, 2011) presents a story of adolescent homophobia in a private secondary-school setting, simultaneously questioning the sexual identification and cis-ness of the protagonist. Floating Skyscrapers (dir. Tomasz Wasilewski, 2013) focuses on a cis-male swimmer who falls in love with an openly gay male while being in a romantic relationship with a woman. Secret (dir. Przemyslaw Wojcieszek, 2012) combines a reflection on non-heteronormative forms of kinship and of sexual identification with the non-memory of Shoah – it is one of several films released around that time, which are reactionary towards the discussion concerning the Polish participation in the pogroms on the Jewish Poles in the 1930s-1940s.
{"title":"Idiosyncratic Ambiguities of Queer(able) Experience in Polish Film in the Early 2010s","authors":"Rafał Morusiewicz","doi":"10.1080/14790963.2021.1921996","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14790963.2021.1921996","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The search for queer/queerable moments in the post-1989 Polish cinema is a frustrating feat. While increasingly featuring LGBTQ+ characters, especially in the current decade, Polish cinema films rarely break away from heteronormative and, less frequently, homonormative stereotypization, which takes on a limited range of offensive or empathetic manifestations. The former, represented by low-brow comedies, such as Weekend (dir. Cezary Pazura, 2010) and Sex Change (dir. Konrad Aksinowicz, 2009), would continue the infamous tendency of cis-male filmmakers to poke fun at anal sex and dildos, which they apparently identify as representative of non-heteronormative sexual practices and behaviours. The latter, usually featuring one or two gay or lesbian characters in the roles of sidekicks to the protagonists, would constitute sympathetic responses to socio-political situations of LGBTQ individuals in Poland, marked by homophobia, coming-out hardship, and/or heavily non-egalitarian legislation in Poland. Yet, in the early 2010s, a few cinema films brought about cracks in the dominating trend, proposing instead multi-layered though heavily ambiguous studies of non-heteronormative characters living in contemporary Poland. Suicide Room (dir. Jan Komasa, 2011) presents a story of adolescent homophobia in a private secondary-school setting, simultaneously questioning the sexual identification and cis-ness of the protagonist. Floating Skyscrapers (dir. Tomasz Wasilewski, 2013) focuses on a cis-male swimmer who falls in love with an openly gay male while being in a romantic relationship with a woman. Secret (dir. Przemyslaw Wojcieszek, 2012) combines a reflection on non-heteronormative forms of kinship and of sexual identification with the non-memory of Shoah – it is one of several films released around that time, which are reactionary towards the discussion concerning the Polish participation in the pogroms on the Jewish Poles in the 1930s-1940s.","PeriodicalId":41396,"journal":{"name":"Central Europe","volume":"10 1","pages":"38 - 52"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75986096","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-01-02DOI: 10.1080/14790963.2021.1921999
N. Boston
ABSTRACT August Agboola Browne (1895 – 1976) was a Nigerian-born jazz musician who resided in Poland from 1922 to 1956. Since the discovery and initial publicisation in 2010 of archived documents Browne submitted in 1949 for membership in a veterans’ association, on which he declared that he had been an insurgent in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 under the code name ‘Ali’, he has been heroised rhetorically and memorialised formally by individuals and institutions in Poland across the political-ideological spectrum as ‘the only Black participant in the Warsaw Uprising’. The present article explores the cultural, discursive, historical, and representational implications of one such project: a portrait interpreting Ali by the queer artist Karol Radziszewski (b. 1980) in a style influenced by Pablo Picasso’s African Period. The article deploys Morrison’s literary-critical concept of ‘playing in the dark’ to engage with this visual art object, analysing, through an optic of racialisation, what it proposes to do as an act of remembrance, an artefact of portraiture, and a discourse on race, particularly Blackness, specifically Black masculinity.
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