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Anthropology of Communism

General data

Course ID: 3620-1-AK-OG
Erasmus code / ISCED: 14.7 Kod klasyfikacyjny przedmiotu składa się z trzech do pięciu cyfr, przy czym trzy pierwsze oznaczają klasyfikację dziedziny wg. Listy kodów dziedzin obowiązującej w programie Socrates/Erasmus, czwarta (dotąd na ogół 0) – ewentualne uszczegółowienie informacji o dyscyplinie, piąta – stopień zaawansowania przedmiotu ustalony na podstawie roku studiów, dla którego przedmiot jest przeznaczony. / (0314) Sociology and cultural studies The ISCED (International Standard Classification of Education) code has been designed by UNESCO.
Course title: Anthropology of Communism
Name in Polish: Antropologia komunizmu
Organizational unit: Studies in Eastern Europe
Course groups: (in Polish) Przedmioty ogólnouniwersyteckie Studium Europy Wschodniej
General university courses
General university courses in the social sciences
ECTS credit allocation (and other scores): (not available) Basic information on ECTS credits allocation principles:
  • the annual hourly workload of the student’s work required to achieve the expected learning outcomes for a given stage is 1500-1800h, corresponding to 60 ECTS;
  • the student’s weekly hourly workload is 45 h;
  • 1 ECTS point corresponds to 25-30 hours of student work needed to achieve the assumed learning outcomes;
  • weekly student workload necessary to achieve the assumed learning outcomes allows to obtain 1.5 ECTS;
  • work required to pass the course, which has been assigned 3 ECTS, constitutes 10% of the semester student load.

view allocation of credits
Language: Polish
Type of course:

general courses

Short description:

The subject of this anthropological analysis is a broadly understood "Civilization of Communism". Basic categories of the East European communist ontology will be discussed such as time, space, history, the human being, the sacrum; the communist propaganda - its contents and means of propagation as well as the phenomenon of the contemporary nostalgia for communism.

The seminar is conducted by the East European Studies, Warsaw University in collaboration with the Institute of Polish Culture,Warsaw University. It is identical with the II semester of the course "Communism Estetics" conducted in the Institute of Polish Culture.

Full description:

Issues of the seminar:

o Utopia and culture. Constitutive features of utopia and of the utopia consciousness.

o Stages of Soviet utopism and models of the Soviet culture (the revolutionary "culture one" and the totalitarian "culture two" according to Vladimir Paperny's typology).

o Models of official culture in Poland and in other countries of "imposed" communism.

o Semiotic "transmission belts" of communist ideology in the socialist block countries' cultures.

o National in form, socialist in meaning - use of folklore in propaganda.

o Ontology and anthropology of the Soviet man (1) - "The new man": anthropological utopia of the Soviet "culture one".

o Ontology and anthropology of the Soviet man (2) - "The real man": anthropological utopia of the Soviet "culture two".

o Ontology and anthropology of the Soviet man (3) - Anthropological utopia and the Soviet model of the world: the imperative of conquering space (from the committed science-fiction of the twenties to the ideological and journalistic setting of Gagarin's space flight).

o Architecture towards utopia, architecture towards the authorities (1) - architectural searches in the post-revolutionary period; constructivism.

o Architecture towards utopia, architecture towards the authorities (2) - socialist realism in architecture; the socialist architecture canon.

o Architecture towards utopia, architecture towards the authorities (3) - architecture and the imperative of conquering space: the Soviet "neoballoonism" (real high buildings and the so-called "paper architecture").

o Architecture towards utopia, architecture towards the authorities (4) - from the "house-commune" to the "komunalka": stages of Soviet dwelling ideology and the housing construction architecture. Social reality and the social consequences of the different dwelling models.

o Architecture towards utopia, architecture towards the authorities (5) - what is left of those years? Further existence of socialist realist and post-socialist realistic architecture - from demolishing to accustoming.

o The phenomenon of the Yosif Stalin Palace of Culture and Science.

o Anthropology of mass song of "culture one" and "culture two".

o Anthropology of visual propaganda (1). The Soviet political poster: the avant-garde, socialist realist and "decadent" one.

o Anthropology of visual propaganda (2). Communist emblems (postal and other stamps, postcards)

o Anthropology of visual propaganda (3). Socialist realist and post-socialist realist sculpture. Subsequent monuments demolishion.

o Cosmogony of the Soviet state in the official culture texts (basing on Soviet Stalin era filmmaking, mass song and political manifestos of leaders): the founding myth: year 1917 and the Revolution, the compensation myth: 1941-1945 and the Great Patriotic War)

o Cosmogony of the Soviet state in the official culture texts (basing on Soviet Stalin era filmmaking, mass song and political manifestos of leaders): the founding myth: year 1917 and the Revolution, the compensation myth: 1941-1945 and the Great Patriotic War) - continuation

o Mythologization of power succession: 1925 and the death of Lenin; 1953/56: the death of Stalin and the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

o Creation of the cosmogony of the satellite states in relation with the Soviet model.

o Sacral aspects of social and political life in the Soviet Union. Mechanisms of power sacralization.

o Saint rulers and cultural heros of communism - Soviet models

o Saint rulers and cultural heros of communism - implementations in the communist block countries

o Saint books

o Forbidden books, forbidden knowledge

o Holiday, fest, mass events - life ritualization, forms of collective experiencing of the sacrum and of spending free time.

o Nostalgia for communism and its different faces.

Bibliography:

Afanasjew J., Groźna Rosja, Warszawa 2005.

Bralczyk J., O języku polskiej propagandy politycznej lat siedemdziesiątych, Warszawa 2003.

Cieśliński M., Piękniej niż w życiu. Polska Kronika Filmowa 1944-1994, Warszawa 2006.

Czarna księga komunizmu, Warszawa 1999.

Čolović I., Polityka symboli. Eseje o antropologii politycznej, Kraków 2001.

Glowiński M., Nowomowa po polsku, Warszawa 1990

Holzer J., Komunizm w Europie, Warszawa 2000.

Imos R., Święci sowieccy [w:] Nadprzyrodzone, red. E. Przybył, Kraków 2003.

Kochanowski J., P.Majewski, T. Markiewicz, K. Rokicki, Zbudować Warszawę piękną... O nowy krajobraz stolicy (1944-1956), Warszawa 2003.

Kołakowski L., Główne nurty marksizmu, Warszawa 1981.

Kula M. Religiopodobny komunizm, Kraków 2003.

Kupiecki R., Natchnienie milionów. Kult Stalina w Polsce 1944-1956, Warszawa 1993.

Leinwand A., Sztuka w służbie utopii. O funkcjach politycznych i propagandowych sztuk plastycznych w Rosji Radzieckiej lat 1917-1922, Warszawa 1998.

Leszczyński Adam, Sprawy do załatwienia. Listy do "Po Prostu" 1955-1957, Warszawa 2000.

Malia M., Sowiecka tragedia. Historia komunistycznego imperium rosyjskiego 1917-1991, Warszawa 1998.

Miasta nowych ludzi. Architektoniczna i urbanistyczna spuścizna komunizmu, t. 1 i 2, pod red. Z. Grębeckiej i J. Sadowskiego, Warszawa 2008.

Nostalgia. Eseje o tęsknocie za komunizmem, pod red. F. Modrzejewskiego i M. Sznajderman, Wołowiec 2002.

Olszewska-Dyoniziak B., Antropologia totalitaryzmu europejskiego XX wieku, Wrocław 1999.

Osęka P., Rytuały stalinizmu. Oficjalne święta i uroczystości rocznicowe w Polsce 1944-1956, Warszawa 2007.

Pałac kultury. Między ideologią a masową wyobraźnią, pod red. Z. Grębeckiej i J. Sadowskiego, Warszawa 2007.

Pipes R., Rewolucja rosyjska, Warszawa 1994.

Sadowski J. Rewolucja i kontrrewolucja obyczajów. Rodzina, prokreacja i przestrzeń życia w rosyjskim dyskursie utopijnym lat 20. I 30. XX w., Łódź 2005.

Smaga J., Rosja w XX stuleciu, Kraków 2001.

Smoleń, Stracone dekady. Historia ZSRR 1917-1991, Warszawa-Kraków 1994.

Socrealizm. Fabuły-komunikaty-ikony, pod red. K. Stępnika i M. Piechoty, Lublin 2006.

Szacki J., Spotkania z utopią, Warszawa 2000.

Tomasik W., Inżynieria dusz. Literatura realizmu socjalistycznego w planie "propagandy monumentalnej", Wrocław 1999.

Walicki A., Marksizm i skok do królestwa wolności: dzieje komunistycznej utopii, Warszawa 1996.

This course is not currently offered.
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