Solidarity - the power of the powerless, weak resistance and the politics of the common

elective courses

(in Polish) Mile widziana wstępna wiedza o teoriach kultury i polityki oraz filozofii współczesnej.

The starting point of this seminar is a specific historical event - the appearance of "Solidarity" in 1980 and the 16 months of fascinating involvement of Polish women and men in the grassroots transformation of the political and social reality first with means peaceful resistance, strike and fight for workers' rights, and then – in legalized, independent worker’s unions. This unprecedented process was happening on all levels, transforming the regulations and institutions, allowing censorship-free press and other media, suddenly opening the institutions and other workplaces to the voices of the workers. We will read various accounts of "Solidarność" - the classic ones (Staniszkis, Magala, Kowalski or Tischner), as well as more contemporary ones (Ost, Matynia, Sowa, Krzemiński or Kołtan). We will read the 21 August Demands and memories of activists and activists the first Solidarity. We will also see theatrical and literary interception of this event.

In the analysis of Solidarność, there is an interesting tension between the Western theories of the public sphere, focused on the political agency of the middle classes, and the semi-peripheral, Eastern European experiences of the public sphere. The origins of "Solidarność" give a number of opportunities to discuss the differences between East and West both in the European context and in the context of more general geopolitical divisions outlined by Immanuel Wallerstein, to which today's social sciences are increasingly coming back.

The nostalgic returns to the "August events" show, that they only become fossils. Using tools

Nietzsche, Derrida and other authors, we will check if there is life in it. Solidarity is not only the name of the social resistance movement and the trade union that has blossomed out of it in Poland in 1980, but also an important political idea, returning in the works of political philosophy, social theory and cultural analysis, usually as a memory of something long lost,

that we need to rediscover (Ost, Matynia). This phantasmagoric, supposedly lost object returns with increased strength during the neoliberal changes and economic or political crises (Boym, Sowa, Krzemiński). We will check how it is conceptualized today and whether there are other attempts to revive it today than nostalgia. Many authors directly place solidarity in the center of their political theories (Tischner, Rorty, Dussel, Fraser, hooks).

This seminar is intended not only to provide the main contemporary conceptualizations of solidarity. They are also an interdisciplinary research proposal, in which discourse analysis, affective politics and critical theory intertwine with the analysis of cultural texts, research

memories and archives.

As part of the course, we will analyze political and social theories, with particular emphasis on solidarity and Solidarność, we will discuss memories and documents from the beginnings of "Solidarność" (1980-81). We will build and strengthen our skills using contemporary theories of politics and culture and critical analysis of political demands.

Ahmed, Sara. 2014. Willful Subjects. Durham: Duke University Press.

Ash, Timothy, Polska rewolucja. „Solidarność” 1980-82, Wydawnictwo Krąg, 1989.

Baczko, Bronisław, Wyobrażenia społeczne. Szkice o nadziei i pamięci zbiorowej, PWN, Warszawa 1994.

W. Bereś, Drugi Obieg: historia, sława, zmierzch, „Kultura”, Paryż 1991, nr 11/518.

J. Błażejowska, Papierowa rewolucja. Z dziejów drugiego obiegu w Polsce 1976-1989/90, Warszawa 2010.

J. Derrida, Archive Fever. A Freudian Impression, w: Diacritics, Vol. 25, No. 2 (Summer, 1995), s. 9-63.

M. Dzido, Kobiety Solidarności, Wydawnictwo Świat Książki, Warszawa 2016.

Enrique Dussel. From Fraternity to Solidarity: Toward a Politics of Liberation, w: JOURNAL of SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY, Vol. 38 No. 1, Spring 2007, 73–92.

Fraser, Nancy and Honneth, Axel, Redystrybucja czy uznanie? Debata polityczno-filozoficzna, Wrocław, 2005.

J. Halberstam, Queer Art of Failure, Duke University Press, 2010.

Havel, Vaclav. Siła bezsilnych i inne eseje, Wydawnictwo Agora SA, Warszawa, 2011.

Hill, Mike and Montag, Warren (eds). 2000. Masses, Classes and the Public Sphere. London: Verso.

Holzer, Jerzy, Solidarność. Geneza i historia, Wydawnictwo “Krąg”, Warszawa 1984.

hooks, bell. 2013 Teoria feministyczna. Od marginesu do centrum. Wydawnictwo Krytyki Politycznej, Warszawa.

Kluge, Alexander and Negt, Oskar. 1993. Public Sphere and Experience: Toward and analysis of the Bourgeois and Proletarian Public. Translated by Peter Labanyi et al. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press.

Kołtan, J. (ed), Solidarność i kryzys zaufania, ECS Gdańsk, 2014.

Kondratowicz, Ewa. 2001. Szminka na sztandarze. Kobiety Solidarnosci 1980-1989, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Sic!.

Krzemiński, I, Solidarność. Niespełniony projekt polskiej demokracji, ECS, Gdańsk, 2013.

Kuisz, Jarosław. 2009. Charakter prawny Porozumień Sierpniowych, Wydawnictwo Trio, Warszawa.

Kuroń, Jacek. 1990. Wiara i wina. Do i od komunizmu. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo NOWa.

Magala, Sławomir. Walka klas w bezklasowej Polsce, ECS, Gdańsk, 2012.

Marzec, Wiktor, Rebelia i reakcja. Rewolucja 1905 roku i plebejskie doświadczenie polityczne, Universitas, Kraków, 2016.

Matynia, Elzbieta. 2001. “The Lost Treasures of Solidarity”. Social Research Vol. 68, No. 4: 917-936.

Negri, Antonio i Hardt, Michael,. Rzeczpospolita. Korporacja Ha!Art, Kraków 2012.

Negri, Antonio i Hardt, Michael, Assembly, Oxford University Press, 2017.

Ost, David. Klęska Solidarności, Wydawnictwo Muza SA, Warszawa 2007.

Jan Patočka, Heretical Essays in the Philosophy of History, trans. Erazim Kohák, Chicago: Open Court, 1996.

Penn, Shana. Podziemie kobiet, Wydawnictwo Rosner i Wspólnicy, Warszawa 2003.

Rorty, Richard, Przygodność, ironia i solidarność, Przeł. W. Popowski, Warszawa 1996.

Sowa, Jan, Inna Rzeczpospolita jest możliwa! Widma przeszłości, wizje przyszłości, WAB, Warszawa, 2015.

Staniszkis, Jadwiga. Samoogranioczająca się rewolucja, ECS, Gdańsk, 2010.

J. Tischner, Etyka solidarności oraz Homo Sovieticus, Kraków, 1992.

Paolo Virno, A Grammar of the Multitude. For an Analysis of Contemporary Forms of Life, Semiotext(e), New York, 2005.

Walicki, Andrzej, W stronę przeciętności. Uwagi o projektach programów (krytyka programu PZPR i „Solidarności”), Polityka, nr 21/1981.

Wiśniewska, Agnieszka, Duża solidarność, mała solidarność. Biografia Henryki Krzywonos, Warszawa, 2010.

Zagajewski, Adam. Solidarność i samotność, Warszawa, 2002.

K_W02 Comprehensive understanding of the terminology of the humanities and social scienses and knows how to use it

K_W10 Comprehensive and in-depth knowledge on the latest achievements of interdisciplinary research methods in the humanities and the social, exact and natural sciences

K_U08 presenting the results of one’s own analysis of research problems in oral, written and multimedia form

K_U11 analysing written and oral academic texts in Polish and in one of the “congress” languages

K_K03 understanding the dynamics of scientific, cultural and social development and keeping up with new research methods and paradigms