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Малгожата РЕСКЕ / Matgorzata ROESKE
| Мода или ностальгия? О том, как функционирует ПНР в общественном воображении современных поляков / Fashion or Nostalgia? Polish People's Republic in the Social Imagination of Contemporary Poles |
Малгожата РЕСКЕ / MaJgorzata ROESKE
Ягеллонский Университет, Краков, Польша Институт этнологии и культурной антропологии Аспирантка
Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, PhD Student malgorzata. roeske@gmail. com
МОДА ИЛИ НОСТАЛЬГИЯ? О ТОМ, КАК ФУНКЦИОНИРУЕТ ПНР В ОБЩЕСТВЕННОМ
ВООБРАЖЕНИИ СОВРЕМЕННЫХ ПОЛЯКОВ
Статья посвящена проблеме восприятия периода ПНР в воображении поляков. Основная цель - попытаться ответить на вопрос, как соотносятся два наблюдаемых явления: ностальгия по периоду социализма и мода на ПНР.
Первое из упомянутых явлений относится к поколению, помнящему то время. Основные причины ностальгии можно найти как в присущем постмодернистскому состоянию разрыве преемственности культурного наследия, так и в слишком быстрых культурных и экономических изменениях, произошедших в Польше после краха социалистической системы. Для этих людей период ПНР представляется как время, когда жилось легче, безопаснее, а мир был более понятным.
Феномен моды на ПНР относится к массовой культуре и широко распространяется прежде всего среди молодого поколения. Он относится к широкой сфере культурных артефактов: одежде, дизайну, музыке, кино и телевидению, предметам домашнего обихода. Они вписываются в более широкое явление моды на винтаж и ретро, тем самым обретая статус культа. Для старших людей это является символом принадлежности к сообществу их поколения, в свою очередь для молодых - с одной стороны, тенденцией, выводящейся из стилистики абсурда и связанного с ПНР юмора, а с другой -отечественным экспортным продуктом.
Ключевые слова: ПНР, социализм, коммунизм, ностальгия, эстетика, мода, винтаж, ретро,
олдскул, системные изменения, культурные изменения, поп-культура, абсурд, юмор.
FASHION OR NOSTALGIA? POLISH PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC IN THE SOCIAL IMAGINATION OF CONTEMPORARY POLES*
The article focuses on the reception of the PRL 128 (Polish People's Republic) era in the imagination of Poles. The main aim is an attempt to answer the question about the nature of the relationship of two following phenomena: nostalgia for the period of socialism and fashion for the PRL.
The first of the mentioned phenomena refers to the generation remembering that time. The fundamental causes of nostalgia can be found both in the postmodern condition of breaking the continuity of the cultural transmission, as well as too rapid cultural and economic changes that occurred after the collapse of the socialist system in Poland. For these people, the period of the PRL appears to be a time when life was easier and safer, and the world was more comprehensible and familiar place.
The phenomenon of fashion for the PRL refers to popular culture and is widespread mainly among the young generation. It concerns a wide range of cultural artifacts: clothes, design, music, film and television, articles of everyday use. They are part of the wider phenomenon of vintage and retro fashion, thus gaining cult status. For the older generation, this content is a symbol of belonging to the generation community,
| 3 (36) 2019 |
Малгожата РЕСКЕ / Matgorzata ROESKE
| Мода или ностальгия? О том, как функционирует ПНР в общественном воображении современных поляков / Fashion or Nostalgia? Polish People's Republic in the Social Imagination of Contemporary Poles |
while for the younger generation it is, on the one hand, a trend rooted in the absurdity and humor associated with the PRL, and, on the other hand, an original, homegrown export product.
Key words: socialism, communism, nostalgia, aesthetics, fashion, vintage, retro, oldschool, systemic change, cultural change, pop culture, absurdity, humor.
years have passed since the political-economic system transformation in Poland, nevertheless the era of the PRL (Polish People's Republic) is still vivid in the social imagination of Poles. A generation remembering that period recalls it with affection, not even disturbed by reminiscences of seemingly unpleasant experiences caused by the lack of goods, long queues, or oppressive power relations. Facts from the past are subject of a specific revaluation, which results in idealization of a yesteryear. At the same time, we are witnessing other phenomenon, namely the fashion for the PRL. I mean „the other" because, however, in the first case we are dealing with a sort of nostalgia, the fashion for culture of socialism seems to be a separate phenomenon, based on other mechanisms. Nostalgia is - which is understandable - mostly shared by the generation that remembers socialism. It refers primarily to the emotional sphere, being focused within the imaginations of the generation community that experienced the other times, and it is limited to this group of individuals only. On the other hand, the recipients of fashion for the PRL are mostly the younger ones, the generation for which the artifacts of socialism have gained cult status, and for those that era seems to be an inexhaustible source of surreal humor. It is worth noting that the fashion for the PRL does not mean the same as the fashion for socialism, in terms of the political system. The phenomenon exists beyond politics and
ideology, and is limited to the power of objects and everyday life of the PRL.
Fashion, as it usually is, is closely related to mass culture. It is useful to distinguish between mass culture and popular culture, terms often used interchangeably. An important difference is that mass culture is somehow derivative to popular culture. Popular culture is generated from the bottom up, its source is the taste of recipients, who express their need for a certain type of content and products, and they also spread it. Mass culture is closely linked to the industrial revolution and circulates through the mass media and advertising. In this sense, popular culture is a broader concept, and has more historical and universal nature1.
Popcommunism2 basically has its origins in popular culture - request for the content related
* The article is based on the paper titled Moda czy nostalgia? O tym, jak PRL funkcjonuje w swiadomosci wspolczesnych Polakow // "Kultura Popularna". 2014. № 2 (40). Pp. 140-151.
1 Gr^becka Z. Mi^dzy smiechem a nostalgia - powroty do komunistycznej przeszlosci // Popkomunizm. Doswiadczenie komunizmu a kultura popularna / Eds. Boguslawska M., Gr^becka Z. Krakow: LIBRON, 2010. P.331-332.
2 This term has already become established in the dis-
course of researchers dealing with the issue of socialism. As the name suggests, it refers to popular culture, i.e. the culture generated by the society from the bottom up. At the same time, it is connected with widely understood cultural content created in the socialist and communist countries, in other words so-called com-
| 3 (36) 2019 |
Малгожата РЕСКЕ / Matgorzata ROESKE
| Мода или ностальгия? О том, как функционирует ПНР в общественном воображении современных поляков / Fashion or Nostalgia? Polish People's Republic in the Social Imagination of Contemporary Poles |
to the civilisation of communism is of a bottom-up nature. Fashion has been constituted spontaneously, without any specialists of marketing and advertising guidance. Nevertheless, the market vividly responses to this challenge, therefore we are currently witnessing a deluge of a content related to the past system, which is promoted by mass media, in other words mass culture.
The main objective of this paper is an attempt to analyze the causes, mechanisms and, to a certain extent, also the consequences of both: nostalgia and fashion for the PRL. I would also like to consider what is the nature of the relation between both phenomena: can we point out any causuation, or rather these two are based on completely separate mechanisms?
Nostalgia for PRL
The term „nostalgia" in the humanities is defined as a sense of longing for the past and lost time, for the land of childhood, the small homeland, ideological homeland, lost arcadia3. Therefore, it requires two conditions for a sense of nostalgia to arise: memory of the past and loss associated with the change of the reality we live in. The result of this longing is a positive evaluation of the past, occasionally even its idealization. The past becomes a subject to the mechanism of mythifica-tion, appears as time of fraternity, community, and egalitarianism. Michael Herzfeld, author of the
munist civilisation: art, aesthetics, artifacts, social patterns, etc. (Gr^becka Z. Nostalgia // Maly Slownik Popkomunizmu // Popkomunizm. Doswiadczenie komunizmu a kultura popularna / Eds. Boguslawska M., Gr^becka Z. Kraków: LIBRON, 2010). 3 Gr^becka Z. Nostalgia // Maly Slownik Popkomunizmu // Popkomunizm. Doswiadczenie komunizmu a kultura popularna / Eds. Boguslawska M., Gr^becka Z. Kraków: LIBRON, 2010. P. 359.
structural nostalgia concept, notes that one of its features is repetition: every generation expresses the same longing for the time of past youth, when people supposedly were better for each other, less selfish, more benevolent4. Another author, David Lowenthal, identifies nostalgia with the trend for fascination with the past. The sources of its fascination he finds in rapid social changes, that trigger the phenomenon defined as the duty of remembrance. This responsibility is reflected in the need to maintain chronicler and collector activities5. Nostalgia is a universal and all-encompassing phenomenon, defining our attitude towards the past. Lowenthal, quoting Bevis Hillier, writes that „history was being recycled as nostalgia almost as soon as happened"6. A Herzfeld-like view on the causes of nostalgia is presented by Marcin Brocki. He argues that its source lies in too rapid change of cultural codes organizing social life after the fall of socialism in Poland, therefore the codes have become „foreign languages"7. This explanation seems to be quite plausible: people who have experienced transformation simply may feel lost in the new reality and therefore they escape in their memories into the familiar, domesticated past. Since we have already started to consider the
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4 Herzfeld M. ZaZylosc kulturowa. Poetyka spoleczna w panstwie narodowym. Transl. M. Buchowski. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellonskiego, 2007.
5 Some analogies to this can be found in the concept of Pierre Nora's sites of memory, which I will return to later on in my work.
6 Lowenthal D. The Past is a Foreign Country. Cambridge: CUP, 1985. P. 6.
7 Brocki M. Nostalgia za PRL-em. Próba analizy // "Konteksty. Polska Sztuka Ludowa". 2011. № 1. Pp.
26-33.
| 3 (36) 2019 |
Малгожата РЕСКЕ / Matgorzata ROESKE
| Мода или ностальгия? О том, как функционирует ПНР в общественном воображении современных поляков / Fashion or Nostalgia? Polish People's Republic in the Social Imagination of Contemporary Poles |
causes of nostalgia, it is worth to put it in some order.
The reasons for nostalgia
Among the primary sources of nostalgia, researchers indicate following: longing for the lost, mythificated past, a sense of loss of continuity due to sudden social changes, and the belief that social bonds in the past were stronger and deeper8. Longing for the past means also the longing for a past youth, which is usually romanticized. As far as above reasons appear to be quite universal for all nostalgia manifestations, it is worthwhile to look at how they are implemented in the case of nostalgia for the PRL.
Daily life in a socialist country was certainly not easy, but it was a familiar place, functioning according to rather clear rules, that provided a sense of stability. This relatively persistent cultural idiom collapsed along with the systemic transformation, which brought economic, cultural and moral changes of so far unprecedented dynamism. Good exemplification of those days is once popular metaphor of a moving train that not everyone has managed to jumped on. Those who did not keep up with the change found themselves in a difficult financial situation. The problem, however, was not only related to the economic sphere, but also - or rather primarily - to the cultural one. The rules of social life, the codes about which Marcin Brocki writes, changed too quickly and disorganized life of an individual. A natural defensive mechanism in such cases is to turn towards what is well-known and safe: an escape into
the familiar past. The past is perceived as a place of simpler interpersonal relations; a world in which it was easier to get some help from another human being and where there were stronger community ties (e.g. neighbourly). Egalitarianism, originating from communist ideology, with its equitable distribution of resources, may not have been implemented in the most exemplary way, but at least it regulated the standard of citizens lives to the extent that there have been no such drastic differences in financial status, as it occurred later. „No one had too much, we all had equal, no one was jealous", say those who remember the PRL. It is probably a simplification, since it is well known that many have tried in different ways, not always legal, to improve their standard of living, from which, by the way, it arised the phenomenon of „contriving", but nevertheless the situation was giving a sense of a certain social justice. Another important factor contributing to the sense of community, was the notion of having a „common enemy", which was an oppressive system9.
Financial situation in the PRL paradoxically is considered by many to be better compared to the contemporary one10. The state created a sense of social security, everyone had enough to afford the basic goods, there was no problem of home-lessness or unemployment. Conditions, compared to today's, were harsh but the sense of stability
8 Gr^becka Z. Nostalgia // Maly Slownik Popkomunizmu // Popkomunizm. Doswiadczenie komunizmu a kultura popularna / Eds. Boguslawska M., Gr^becka Z. Kraków: LIBRON, 2010. P. 335.
9 Golonka-Czajkowska M. Podróz do krainy zwanej Now^ Hut% czyli o komunizmie jako atrakcji turystycznej // Popkomunizm. Doswiadczenie komunizmu a kultura popularna / Eds. Boguslawska M., Gr^becka Z. Kraków: LIBRON, 2010. P. 302.
10 Gr^becka Z. Nostalgia // Maly Slownik Popkomunizmu // Popkomunizm. Doswiadczenie komunizmu a kultura popularna / Eds. Boguslawska M., Gr^becka Z. Kraków: LIBRON, 2010. P. 335.
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| 3 (36) 2019 |
Малгожата РЕСКЕ / Matgorzata ROESKE
| Мода или ностальгия? О том, как функционирует ПНР в общественном воображении современных поляков / Fashion or Nostalgia? Polish People's Republic in the Social Imagination of Contemporary Poles |
compensated for these shortages. Speaking of nostalgia for lost youth, there is a certain analogy between the socialist system and the period of childhood: the protective state, like a parent, spreaded an umbrella over its citizens, expecting at the same time obedience to the restrictive rules of the authorities. The systemic transformation can therefore be compared to the situation of a human being who leaves a safe, though freedom-restricting, family home and enters into a new, uncertain reality, in which he will have to count only on himself. Consequently, nostalgia for youth gains double meaning: it is a longing for a real period of childhood or youth, which fell on the era of the PRL, but also universal yearning for irretrievably lost sense of security and protection. The sense of security and social order is, by the way, another factor raised by researchers that contributes in nostalgia for the PRL. Paradoxically, actions taken back in those days by law enforcement agencies are sometimes valorised quite posi-
tively11.
Katarzyna Górska notices other reasons for nostalgia for socialism in Poland12. She indicates on political reasons, such as the question of vetting, the persistence of former communist activists, the lack of accountability of the authorities for their criminal decisions and the fact that they enjoy high social benefits - all that triggers a sense of deep social injustice. Górska notes that
11 Gr^becka Z. Nostalgia // Maly Slownik Popkomunizmu // Popkomunizm. Doswiadczenie komunizmu a kultura popularna / Eds. Boguslawska M., Gr^becka Z. Kraków: LIBRON, 2010. P. 335.
12 Górska K. Nostalgia za PRL-em i ostalgia //
Popkomunizm. Doswiadczenie komunizmu a kultura popularna / Eds. Boguslawska M., Gr^becka Z. Kraków: LIBRON, 2010. Pp. 217-228.
due to the different course of decommunization of Poland and Germany, nostalgia in the former German Democratic Republic has a completely different character. Lack of accountability of the painful past in Poland makes it impossible to cut this period off and leave it behind. It is like a constantly festering wound that we do not want to think about. Certainly, this perspective is completely different from those proposed by other researchers, who see the reasons for focusing on the past in its positive evaluation in relation to the present.
Nostalgia and its varieties in the former Eastern Bloc countries
In this paper I focus on the problem of nostalgia in relation to the past political system in Poland, therefore it might be worthwhile to briefly investigate how this phenomenon is described in the context of other post-socialist countries. Researchers distinguish several types of nostalgia in relation to systemic change, depending on the country of occurrence:
Ostalgia - this term was originally used to refer to the longing of the former GDR inhabitants for the period of socialism. With time it gained a more universal relevance and is currently used by some researchers on the phenomenon of nostalgia in the context of transition of the entire Eastern
Bloc13.
Gierkonostalgia - as the name suggests, refers to our native reality, until the 1970s, i.e. the period of Edward Gierek's reign as First Secretary
13 Górska K. Ostalgia // Maly Slownik Popkomunizmu // Popkomunizm. Doswiadczenie komunizmu a kultura popularna / Eds. Boguslawska M., Gr^becka Z. Kraków: LIBRON, 2010. P. 360.
| 3 (36) 2019 |
Малгожата РЕСКЕ / Matgorzata ROESKE
| Мода или ностальгия? О том, как функционирует ПНР в общественном воображении современных поляков / Fashion or Nostalgia? Polish People's Republic in the Social Imagination of Contemporary Poles |
of PZPR14. During this period the standard of living temporarily rose due to co-financing of industry and agriculture; there appeared first shops called Peweks, where people could buy foreign goods for dollars and taste a bit of Western culture. Today's manifestation of nostalgia for this relatively prosperous phase of the PRL is a common saying, „like it was at Gierek's times"15.
Jugonostalgia - likewise the other examples, it refers to a sort of longing for an idealized socialist past, in this case of the former Yugoslavia. Its variety is titonostalgia, which is associated with the person of the Yugoslav leader, Josip Broz Tito, and a specific, local variation of communism of quasi-religious nature introduced by him16.
Fashion for PRL - the object and the memory
The fashion for PRL can be used to briefly define the re-circulation of relevant content for Polish culture during the period of socialism. This content concerns mainly the aesthetics and aspects of everyday life, have been processed in relation to the original form and perform a slightly different function. The phenomenon of fashion for some selected, past period is not new - from time to time there appear trends indicating fascination with particular times, such as the fashion for retro and the 1920s, or the 1960s and the age of the
14 Polish United Workers Party.
15 Jaworska J. Gierkonostalgia // Maly Slownik Popkomunizmu // Popkomunizm. Doswiadczenie komunizmu a kultura popularna / Eds. Boguslawska M., Gr^becka Z. Kraków: LIBRON, 2010. Pp. 349351.
16 Boguslawska M. Jugonostalgia // Maly Slownik
Popkomunizmu // Popkomunizm. Doswiadczenie
komunizmu a kultura popularna / Eds. Boguslawska
M., Gr^becka Z. Kraków: LIBRON, 2010. Pp. 351-
353.
flower power. These trends are part of a broader cultural phenomenon that we have been witnessing for some time now, which can be identify as a retrospective orientation. The „antiquity" and tradition are positively evaluated. Time gives the objects a higher quality and this does not only applies to the original artifacts of the past like antiques, where age is an indicator of authenticity. The handicraft based on deliberately ageing furniture or other objects of everyday use using techniques such as decoupage or shabby chic is very fashionable. Referring to the past and tradition is willingly used by marketing specialists: companies emphasize their long-term period activity, restaurants offer „traditional homemade food", retro boutiques and shops sell vintage style clothing and interior design elements - it all surrounds us everywhere we go. This blast from the past trend applies also to the fashion for music and performers from previous decades, who return to the charts. This phenomenon is called by Marek Kra-jewski the culture of repetition17. Consequently:
The culture of repetition changes the sense of time - the past becomes present, because we can constantly use its material attainment, and the products made several decades ago no longer go to the museum, but they receive a new life, again they become an object of customer consumption and desire18.
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17 Krajewski M. Kultura czwarta: Kultura repetycji (PRL w kulturze popularnej) // Krajewski M. Kultury kultury popularnej. Poznan: Wydawnictwo UAM, 2003.
18 Kulminski R. Kultura repetycji // Popkomunizm. Doswiadczenie komunizmu a kultura popularna / Eds. Boguslawska M., Gr^becka Z. Kraków: LIBRON, 2010. P. 356.
| 3 (36) 2019 |
Малгожата РЕСКЕ / Matgorzata ROESKE
| Мода или ностальгия? О том, как функционирует ПНР в общественном воображении современных поляков / Fashion or Nostalgia? Polish People's Republic in the Social Imagination of Contemporary Poles |
Jean Baudrillard describes this phenomenon of processing signs as cultural recycling. The philosopher points at the changeability and impermanence of cultural patterns, and therefore the content is processed in such a way, to comply with the current trends. In this respect culture is a „magazine of signs, images and stylistic figures"19, from this reservoir we select the content that is consistent with the contemporary fashion20. Popular culture is therefore cumulative in nature, based on the ever-returning quotations, interpretations, revitalizations and continuous changing meaning of the old content.
Hans Kloss, Maya The Bee and the Trabant car
As mentioned earlier, fashion for the PRL, despite the fact that it is generated by popular culture, is disseminated by mass media. The most popular are obviously television and Internet. Popular tv series of 60s, 70s and 80s, such as Stawka wiçksza niz zycie (More Than Life At Stake), Czterech pancernych i pies (Four Tankmen and A Dog), or Alternatywy 4 (Alternatives 4), are regularly broadcast by Polish television, therefore probably there is no Pole, regardless of age, who would not watch at least one episode of these productions. The films from that period are also extremely popular, especially comedies by Stanislaw Bareja, or others filmmakers presenting the absurd world of the PRL. Likewise, different
19 Krajewski M. Kultura czwarta: Kultura repetycji (PRL w kulturze popularnej) // Krajewski M. Kultury kultury popularnej. Poznan: Wydawnictwo UAM, 2003. P. 206.
20 Boguslawska M., Grçbecka Z. Recycling kulturowy // Maly Slownik Popkomunizmu // Popkomunizm. Doswiadczenie komunizmu a kultura popularna / Eds. Boguslawska M., Grçbecka Z. Kraków: LIBRON, 2010. Pp. 365-367.
websides presenting funny nonsense present in public sphere back in the times of the PRL become increasingly popular, e.g. Bareizmy wiecznie zywe (Bareisms eternally alive) or based on the rhetoric of nostalgia, Born in PRL, which presents photographs of artifacts from the 70s and 80s.
Similarly retrospective and sentimental character has the Pewex website - one can find here not only photos of objects or graphics referring to the socialist period aesthetics, but also move back to a specific decade, see fragments of television programs, play legendary, though from today's perspective slightly primitive computer games, listen to music, as well as buy clothes and equipment styled after the PRL's design.
Pewex is just one of a number of online stores offering clothing, accessories and household utensils. Websites presenting collections are also popular, such as Muzeum Dobranocek PRL-u, or Muzeum Czterech Pancernych (the former dedicated to the cartoons for children, the latter to the tv series). Online one can find a wide selection of original objects from the era: electronic equipment, badges and signboards, propaganda posters, etc.
The fascination with popcommunism is not limited to mass media. Thanks to Cracow's Crazy Guides we have an opportunity to go back to the past and take a tour of the very center of symbolic socialism, which undoubtedly is Nowa Huta21 district22. The organizers offer to travel by the leg-
21 Nowa Huta was created in 1949 and designed as a model city for Socialist propaganda. It was planned to be a center of heavy industry and populated by industrial workers. Currently it is one of the districts of Cracow.
22 Golonka-Czajkowska M. Podroz do krainy zwanej Now^ Hut% czyli o komunizmie jako atrakcji
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Малгожата РЕСКЕ / Matgorzata ROESKE
| Мода или ностальгия? О том, как функционирует ПНР в общественном воображении современных поляков / Fashion or Nostalgia? Polish People's Republic in the Social Imagination of Contemporary Poles |
endary Trabant car and visit semantically significant places, for example Plac Centralny (Central Square), which is the heart of Nowa Huta, or Kombinat - the buildings of the former Vladimir Lenin Steelworks. The trip is advertised as unconventional alternative to traditional sightseeing, since it is expected to allow tourists to have direct, multidimensional contact with the past and delivers multisensory experience. It can be described as a anthropological journey, aimed at the deepest immersion in the foreign reality. The offer seems to be addressed mainly to foreigner tourists, as well as representatives of the young generation of Poles, who want to taste the socialist „exoticism". After all, one can be a tourist in both spatial and temporal dimensions.
Artifacts of the past and their function
The sources of nostalgia and fascination with „oldness" and the past have already been discussed. Many researchers recognize it as a break in the continuity of the ideas transmission, or too rapid changes of cultural codes. Particularly useful for us seems to be Pierre Nora's concept. The author argues that the reason for this return to the past lies in tendency to forget and in the absence of milieux de memoire, environments of memory. Once the future was predictable, because it was inevitably intertwined with the present and the past. Nowadays, we have broken this bond with the past, and therefore the future has become uncertain and unfamiliar. A remedy to this condition
turystycznej // Popkomunizm. Doswiadczenie komunizmu a kultura popularna / Eds. Boguslawska M., Gr^becka Z. Kraków: LIBRON, 2010. Pp. 297302.
is to create lieux de mémoire, sites of memory23. These sites may be places or objects of symbolic significance. Artifacts of the past help to recreate the memory of the past, but they play yet another role. It is well known that during the period of the PRL there was no greater selection of commodities, most of the goods were mainly represented by one or two brands. Items of everyday use, such as „Wigry" bicycle, „Frania" washing machine, „Pollena" washing powder, „Bye moze..." perfumes, „Relax" shoes are only few examples of artifacts deeply rooted in a social memory, as objects recalling that era. As Weronika Bryl-Roman rightly points out, they are sort of cultural codes that builds a sense of social bond and cohesion rooted in this particular generation community24.
This shows how artifacts circulate within a cultural framework, in accordance with Baudrillard's concept of cultural recycling. Objects lose their original function of everyday use, at the same time gaining a new semantic and symbolic dimension. They come to life becoming carriers of nostalgia, but also symbols of belonging to a certain social group - in this instance the generation community. Obviously many objects that surround us have a similarly double function25. In this case, however, we are dealing with the revital-ization of things, which gain new meanings. Referring to the concept of Jean Baudrillard's simu-
23 Nora P. Czas pami^ci / Transl. W. Dluski // "Res Publica Nowa". 2001. № 7.
24 Bryl-Roman W. Polski vintage - odkrywanie peerelowskiego designu // Popkomunizm. Doswi-adczenie komunizmu a kultura popularna / Eds. Bo-guslawska M., Gr^becka Z. Kraków: LIBRON, 2010. P. 51.
25 Baranski J. Swiat rzeczy. Zarys antropologiczny. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellonskiego, 2007.
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Малгожата РЕСКЕ / Matgorzata ROESKE
| Мода или ностальгия? О том, как функционирует ПНР в общественном воображении современных поляков / Fashion or Nostalgia? Polish People's Republic in the Social Imagination of Contemporary Poles |
lacra, they getting independent from material reality and become autonomous signs26.
Considering popcommunism, we encounter two types of revitalized content: authentic objects from the era and reconstructions or things made in style of the era. As Zuzanna Gr^becka notes, the latter cannot be carriers of nostalgia, because they are not authentic27. It is worth to recall Tom Selwyn's theory, who is also refered by Monika Golonka-Czajkowska, analyzing Crazy Guides28, and Ewa Klekot29. Selwyn, admittedly has referred it to the case of tourism experience, however it seems to be plausible to apply this theory also to the problem discussed here. The author distinguishes between two categories of experience of contact with the object, defined as „cold" and „hot" authenticity. The former refers to the situation of contact with the original object (or a man, a place), the authenticity of which has been confirmed. In the latter case, the authenticity is based on emotional experience, the authenticity of the experience provides the object the status of genuineness. This applies to all reconstructions, such as stylized furnitures or reprints propaganda
26 Baudrillard J. Symulakry i symulacja / Transl. S. Królak. Warszawa: Sic!, 2005.
27 Gr^becka Z. Mi^dzy smiechem a nostalgia - pow-roty do komunistycznej przeszlosci // Popkomunizm. Doswiadczenie komunizmu a kultura popularna / Eds. Boguslawska M., Gr^becka Z. Kraków: LIBRON, 2010. P. 331.
28 Golonka-Czajkowska M. Podróz do krainy zwanej Now^ Hut% czyli o komunizmie jako atrakcji turystycznej // Popkomunizm. Doswiadczenie komunizmu a kultura popularna / Eds. Boguslawska M., Gr^becka Z. Kraków: LIBRON, 2010. P. 291.
29 Klekot E. Miasto oczyma tubylczego przewodnika //
"Opcit", 2010. № 37.
URL: http://opcit.pl/teksty/miasto-oczyma-tubylczego-przewodnika. Дата доступа: 14.01.2014.
posters. Although they do not have the status of „oldness" and do not originate from the PRL, they still symbolically refer to that reality.
This absurd world of the PRL
The researchers diagnosis that in contemporary world we deal with a break in the continuity of the cultural transmission seems to be quite accurate in context of Poland. The memory of the past is not cultivated at home, teaching about the most recent Polish history is neglected in schools - this period is not reflected in school readings to the same extent as the era of the Second World War. The cultural and linguistic codes slowly become forgotten. Hence, the young generation search for the information in mass media. Popular Polish comedies from the 70s and 80s present the 136 reality of the PRL in a crooked mirror of absurdity, which is not without the consequences for the creation of social perceptions of the past time, in particular among the young generation that has never had the opportunity to experience life in a socialist country. Zuzanna Gr^becka calls this phenomenon bareization, from the name of Stanislaw Bareja30. Fiction is regarded as a reliable and objective source of knowledge about the PRL. Young viewers do not notice the fact that the world presented on the screen is anecdotized and exaggerated. The reception of these cinematographic works in the categories of documentary films causes that young generation perceives the whole reality of PRL through the prism of the gro-
30 Gr^becka Z. Mi^dzy smiechem a nostalgia - pow-roty do komunistycznej przeszlosci // Popkomunizm. Doswiadczenie komunizmu a kultura popularna / Eds. Boguslawska M., Gr^becka Z. Kraków: LIBRON, 2010. Pp. 336-337.
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Малгожата РЕСКЕ / Matgorzata ROESKE
| Мода или ностальгия? О том, как функционирует ПНР в общественном воображении современных поляков / Fashion or Nostalgia? Polish People's Republic in the Social Imagination of Contemporary Poles |
tesque and irony, the PRL becomes a synonym of absurdity and nonsense. Grçbecka writes:
(...) the process of bareization causes the recipient to have at his disposal a social instruction that allows him to laugh at everything that comes from the PRL (...) In case of PRL the very stamp of belonging to the era is a signal that the recipient will be dealing with something funny31.
Absurdity and nonsense became the basic categories of the description of the PRL's world, it is the holistic paradigm through which PRL is perceived. Such view has far-reaching consequences - the differences between the real human drama and a satirical representation of the world become blurry. Reality of PRL loses its authentic ontological dimension and takes the form of a farce, a comedy filled with characters from the past, which is regarded as unreal.
Our homegrown, socialist vintage
While it seems reasonable to explain fashion for the PRL among the generation remembering the time with nostalgia, an interesting problem are the sources of this phenomenon's popularity among the younger people, who never experienced socialism. The PRL is an undeniable trend, one can observe that visiting almost any pub, which interior design more or less refers to socialist aesthetics, for example through signboards or propaganda posters or a coarse toilet décor. One can taste there popular in the PRL snacks like herring or pickled cucumber and drink cheap vodka. It is fashionable to organize a party with music
31 Grçbecka Z. Miçdzy smiechem a nostalgia - pow-roty do komunistycznej przeszlosci // Popkomunizm. Doswiadczenie komunizmu a kultura popularna / Eds. Boguslawska M., Grçbecka Z. Kraków: LIBRON, 2010. P. 332.
137
from the era; on the wave of popularity, forgotten artists of the PRL return. In the online shops, which are mainly targeted at young people, very popular are clothes with prints referring to the slogans of the PRL. This style is willingly adopted by the subculture of hipsters who want to be seen as opponents of all fashions and the so-called mainstream.
The artifacts of socialism undoubtedly play an important role as carriers of memory and help to maintain the sense of identity of the generation remembering the PRL period, hence sentiment towards them is understandable. However, the question of what attracts the young generation to popcommunism remains open.
A phenomenon such as fashion for the PRL cannot be analyzed in isolation from the broader cultural context of fashion for retro and vintage. According to Weronika Bryl-Roman: „Vintage may be a product of post-modernity -pluralized, mosaic and past-oriented culture. This phenomenon can be seen as a practice of postmodern recycling of cultural content"32.
The term vintage refers to design and objects made neatly, with high quality materials, having an original form and patterns, and thus gain timeless status. Vintage draws on the aesthetics of previous times, borrows elements and combines them with contemporary projects. In the countries of Western Europe we can observe return to design of the 1950s and 1960s. And although there is a common belief about unreflective drawing from Western patterns, this is not the
32 Bryl-Roman W. Polski vintage - odkrywanie peerelowskiego designu // Popkomunizm. Doswi-adczenie komunizmu a kultura popularna / Eds. Bo-guslawska M., Grçbecka Z. Kraków: LIBRON, 2010. P. 53.
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Малгожата РЕСКЕ / Matgorzata ROESKE
| Мода или ностальгия? О том, как функционирует ПНР в общественном воображении современных поляков / Fashion or Nostalgia? Polish People's Republic in the Social Imagination of Contemporary Poles |
case. We have got our own local product, which is mostly an original work. The design of the PRL attracts young people with slightly more alternative tastes, who want to stand out from the crowd and do not like the Western aesthetics. On the other hand, this pattern gives them the notion that they have something of their own, rooted in their native culture, and at the same time original and capable of being an export product.
One might wonder whether the contestation itself is not one of the keys to understanding the reasons for the interest in the PRL among the young generation. It is a generation brought up in the period when in Poland the middle class have already been created and the standards of living, at least in part of the society, has risen compared to the previous decades. Young people, however, reject this convenience and modernity - even if only superficially - and turn their tastes towards a grey, coarse reality of the PRL. There is a certain analogy with the protest movement of the 1960s, when young Americans rejected moral patterns of the middle class and opposed the consumer lifestyle by deciding to lead a simple and natural life. Perhaps, this is just another symptom of consumer saturation and typical for a certain age of people rebellion against current reality.
Conclusions
To summarize: the phenomenon of nostalgia for the PRL seems to have its source partly in the post-modern social condition, in which we encounter a break in the continuity of the cultural transmission, but also involves specific political situation - too rapid change of the cultural idiom, that followed the collapse of the socialist system. Certain significance for this phenomenon has also an emotional factor and the fact that the period of
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socialism coincided with the years of youth of the generation that manifests nostalgia. Fashion for the PRL is connected with the common culture of repetition and derives from the popularity of retro and vintage. The recipients of fashion seem to be to mainly representatives of the younger generation, although this is dependent on a certain content. Television broadcasts reach viewers of all ages, however the age of Internet users should not be generalized also. The difference in the reception of popcommunism is rather based on distinct reasons, and mechanisms. For the generation remembering the PRL, the artifacts and cultural content may have a sentimental value, they also create a sense of generation community and identity. For the younger generation, authenticity of this content does not seem to have such an important -138 meaning - realness of that era is of secondary importance, and the experience has no legitimacy function. After all the phenomenon exists somewhere between fiction and reality, and what determines its value is absurdity, humor and grotesque. Nevertheless, for these young people the PRL is not only an original trend, but also certain cultural heritage, their own and unique export product. Carefully selected content gained a new meaning, becoming sort of „socialist fast food", a light and easy representation of a world in which the difficulties of everyday life are taken with humor and irony.
The reality of the PRL, although not too distant in time, is perceived as exotic and foreign. Zuzanna Gr^becka, citing for Magdalena Bo-guslawska's work, describes this phenomenon as the process of ethnographizing the socialist past33.
33 Gr^becka Z. Mi^dzy smiechem a nostalgia - pow-roty do komunistycznej przeszlosci // Popkomunizm.
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Малгожата РЕСКЕ / Matgorzata ROESKE
| Мода или ностальгия? О том, как функционирует ПНР в общественном воображении современных поляков / Fashion or Nostalgia? Polish People's Republic in the Social Imagination of Contemporary Poles |
Boguslawska argues that what shapes the memory of the socialist past is the lifestyle and cultural implications of the system rather than the political events34. Awareness of one's own cultural characteristics and values results usually in the development of folklore and possibly to some extend we encounter this in the case of the processing of the
PRL's cultural content. It exists in isolation from its origins, gaining new meaning and becoming a commodity for sale. Within 25 years after the system transformation we managed to reevaluate complexes of a post-socialist country and turn culture of deficiency into an asset.
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Doswiadczenie komunizmu a kultura popularna / Eds. Boguslawska M., Grçbecka Z. Kraków: LIBRON, 2010. P. 339.
34 Boguslawska M. Jugonostalgia // Maly Slownik Popkomunizmu // Popkomunizm. Doswiadczenie komunizmu a kultura popularna / Eds. Boguslawska M., Grçbecka Z. Kraków: LIBRON, 2010. Pp. 251270.
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