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Copyright of Praktyka Teoretyczna is the property of University of Wroclaw and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Przeglad Socjologiczny is the property of Lodz Scientific Society / Lodzkie Towarzystwo Naukowe and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Interview with Alexander Etkind.

In postcommunist countries such as Russia and Poland and, more specifically, in postcolonially inspired Russian- and Polish-language debates over communism as a (quasi)colonial rule, we can observe features of postcolonial nationalism. The thesis which this article seeks to defend is that some contenders in the debates hijack postcolonial theory with their overt or hidden nationalist agendas, which can themselves be diagnosed as postcolonial when they challenge the postcolonial heuristics from a position inside a postcolonial and postcommunist situation. I therefore endeavor to conceptualize postcolonial theory itself, or rather certain modes of appropriation of it, as either programmatic promotion or subcutaneous practice of postcolonial nationalism. My research focus is comparative, bringing together the Russian and the Polish appropriation of postcolonial studies.

In this Introduction to his book The Climate of History in a Planetary Age (2021) Chakrabarty explores how climate change and discussions on the anthropocene impact the writing of history as well as our notions of being political. He argues that in an era of climate change the global history of divided humanity, which is possible to grasp through concepts such as capitalism, colonialism or globalisation, becomes intertwined with the planetary “deep history” of humans as a species. As a result, the conceptual framework related to postcolonial theory and critiques of capitalism cease to suffice; historiography must begin to also reference the findings of biology and geology. This also forces us to look afresh at what it is to be political, looking back at the work of Hannah Arendt, Carl Schmitt and Bruno Latour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the relationship between architecture and power structures described in Wojciech Górecki’s Buran: Kirgiz wraca na koń. By analyzing the selected architectural structures in the former USSR, the author shows that in the so-called post-communist colonial world, the power structures are unstable and resort to promoting their image through visual arts. He points out the proselytizing character of architectural projects, which are used to signify the attributes of power. By referring to ideology and postcolonial theory, the author demonstrates how both shape the national identity and order the relationship between power structures and society. He also recounts his own experience from his journeys to Russia, the Caucasus and Kazakhstan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the circulation of the concept of postcoloniality from Western Academia to Eastern European context of research. On the one hand, the proliferation of meanings of postcoloniality results from the heterogeneity of the postcolonial theory that combines various components of postmodern, feminist and emancipatory discourses. On the other hand, the notions of "postcoloniality" and "postcolonial society" become vaguely comprehensive and too easily identified with post-communism or post-socialism. At the turn of the century many researchers decided to incorporate the concept of a historical European domination over the Orient and people from the Middle East to analyse the relics of communist regimes in Eastern Europe: a colonialized man has been transformed into a homo sovieticus. The paper focuses on the concepts borrowed from the postcolonial theory which used in the Eastern European context might change into an ideological voice trapped in the specific discourse of modernization and otherness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Violence and religion. Blasphemy in Islam presented on Polish web portals The aim of the paper is to analyse the representations of blasphemy in Islam presented on popular Polish web portals. Critical Discourse Analysis was applied. The analysis included representations of the bla­sphemy cases and of the accused, both male and female. The analysed material was interpreted in the light of Judith Butler theory and postcolonial theory. Przemoc i religia. Bluźnierstwo w islamie w przekazach polskich portali internetowych Celem niniejszego tekstu jest analiza wizerunku bluźnierstwa w islamie prezentowanego na po­pularnych polskich portalach internetowych. Autorka zastosowała krytyczną analizę dyskursu. Analizowała przypadki bluźnierstw i oskarżonych o bluźnierstwo kobiet i mężczyzn. Materiał zinterpretowała przy pomocy teorii Judith Butler oraz teorii postkolonialnej.

This article examines selected works of Polish fiction to analyse representations of the socio-cultural conditions of the diaspora that formed in the UK after Poland's accession to the EU in 2004. Dobrogoszcz employs the categories of postcolonial theory used by Homi K. Bhabha in The Location of Culture to offer a critical review of stereotypes that have dominated the perception of Polish migrants in the UK, and to examine their role in the process of migrant identity formation. Faced with the incommensurability of foreign culture, Polish newcomers to the British Isles are bound to deal with the their national identity and to accept its inevitably hybrid character. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From melancholy to despair. About Andrzej Stasiuk’s prose works In Moja Europa, Jadąc do Babadag and Fado Andrzej Stasiuk describes his travelling to the countries of the East-Central Europe: its diminished, forgotten part, lying on the margins of History and Progress. It is a land of melancholy, of the eternal emptiness and lack. To praise it means to give an ironic response to the enthusiasm of a “return to the West”, to the attempts to meet East-European stigma and to the West’s fear of East-European ferocity. What is the source of this melancholy? Stasiuk refers to Cioran, his philosophy of history, his resignation and his belief in the bankruptcy of the European civilization. We know, however, that in the case of Cioran melancholy covers the memory of philosopher’s commitment to Romanian fascism; his subsequent melancholy replaces responsibility. What are the wounds and silenced victims hiding in Stasiuk’s melancholic landscape? What kind of responsibility does he not want to accept? In his next book, Dziennik pisany później, Stasiuk comes back to the same countries, this time not trying to escape the hell of questions about the East-European ethnic carnage. The author of the article analyses his turning point, using the terminology developed in Peter Hallward’s Absolutely Post-colonial to describe the dynamics between two tendencies: singular and specific. Od melancholii do rozpaczy. O prozie Andrzeja Stasiuka W Mojej Europie, Jadąc do Babadag i Fado Andrzej Stasiuk podróżuje po krajach Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej. To Europa pomniejsza, zapomniana, na marginesie Historii i Postępu. Jest to kraina melancholii, pustki i wiecznego braku. Opiewanie jej staje się ironiczną odpowiedzią na entuzjazm „powrotu do Zachodu”, na próby sprostania wschodnioeuropejskiemu piętnu i na zachodnie przerażenie wschodnioeuropejską dzikością. Skąd się jednak bierze spowijająca ją melancholia? Stasiuk powołuje się na Ciorana, na jego filozofię historii, rezygnację i przekonanie o bankructwie cywilizacji europejskiej. Wiemy jednak, że w przypadku Ciorana melancholia przykrywa pamięć o przemilczanym romansie filozofa z faszyzmem, który miał się stać radykalnym wyrwaniem się ku nowemu światu i nowej historii. Jakie rany i przemilczane ofiary kryją się w melancholijnym krajobrazie u Stasiuka? Jakiej odpowiedzialności nie chce przyjąć? W kolejnej książce, Dzienniku pisanym później, Stasiuk wraca w te same miejsca, by tym razem nie umknąć przed pytaniami o wschodnioeuropejskie piekło etnicznej jatki. Autorka przedstawia ten zwrot, korzystając z terminologii Petera Hallwarda i opisanej przez niego dynamiki między tendencjami singular i specific.

While recently the concept of multiculturalism has been an object of strong criticism from the political side, the book under review takes another turn scrutinizing and historicizing it. Looking at Central Europe through the lenses of nonessentialism, postcolonialism or national indifference, multiple authors propose not only new ways of reading the history of the region, but also of establishing categories for the future research in historical cultural studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sudia Litteraria et Historica is the property of Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Slavic Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In Moja Europa, Jadąc do Babadag and Fado Andrzej Stasiuk describes his travelling to the countries of the East-Central Europe: its diminished, forgotten part, lying on the margins of History and Progress. It is a land of melancholy, of the eternal emptiness and lack. To praise it means to give an ironic response to the enthusiasm of a "return to the West", to the attempts to meet East-European stigma and to the West's fear of East-European ferocity. What is the source of this melancholy? Stasiuk refers to Cioran, his philosophy of history, his resignation and his belief in the bankruptcy of the European civilization. We know, however, that in the case of Cioran melancholy covers the memory of philosopher's commitment to Romanian fascism; his subsequent melancholy replaces responsibility. What are the wounds and silenced victims hiding in Stasiuk's melancholic landscape? What kind of responsibility does he not want to accept? In his next book, Dziennik pisany później, Stasiuk comes back to the same countries, this time not trying to escape the hell of questions about the East-European ethnic carnage. The author of the article analyses his turning point, using the terminology developed in Peter Hallward's Absolutely Post-colonial to describe the dynamics between two tendencies: singular and specific. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]