Reassessing Communism

Concepts, Culture, and Society in Poland 1944-1989
Erscheinungsjahr 2021
ISBN: 978-963-386-378-7
Verlag: Amsterdam University Press

Buch, Englisch, 440 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 784 g

The thirteen authors of this collective work undertook to articulate matter-of-fact critiques of the dominant narrative about communism in Poland while offering new analyses of the concept, and also examining the manifestations of anticommunism. Approaching communist ideas and practices, programs and their implementations, as an inseparable whole, they examine the issues of emancipation, upward social mobility, and changes in the cultural canon.

The authors refuse to treat communism in Poland in simplistic categories of totalitarianism, absolute evil and Soviet colonization, and similarly refuse to equate communism and fascism. Nor do they adopt the neoliberal view of communism as a project doomed to failure. While wholly exempt from nostalgia, these essays show that beyond oppression and bad governance, communism was also a regime in which people pursued a variety of goals and sincerely attempted to build a better world for themselves.

The book is interdisciplinary and applies the tools of social history, intellectual history, political philosophy, anthropology, literature, cultural studies, and gender studies to provide a nuanced view of the communist regimes in east-central Europe.

Zielgruppe

Academic

Autoren/Hrsg.

Chmielewska, Katarzyna

Mrozik, Agnieszka

Wolowiec, Grzegorz

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Ideologien Marxismus, Kommunismus
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Acronyms, Introduction, PART I. Critiques of the Dominant Narrative, PART II. New Analyses of Communism, PART III. New Analyses of Anti-Communism, List of Contributors, Index

Über Autor(innen)

Katarzyna Chmielewska isAssistant Professor at the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Member of the Center for Cultural and Literary Studies on Communism and the Center for Contemporary Literature and Social Communication at the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

Agnieszka Mrozik is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Member of the Center for Cultural and Literary Studies on Communism and the Archives of Women at the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

Grzegorz Wolowiec is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Head of the Center for Cultural and Literary Studies on Communism at the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences.