The mythopoeia in Stalinist propaganda of post-war Poland

Bibliographic Data

ID10739554
AuthorsMałgorzata Haładewicz-Grzelak (0000-0002-0036-9778, University of Opole, corresponding author)
Year2010
Volume2010
Issue182
Publication date2010-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSemiotica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0037-1998 • E-ISSN: 1613-3692
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/semi.2010.056
OpenAlexW1977231075
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited11

This article analyzes the discourse of propaganda in the apogee of the Stalinist era in Poland (1949–1953) as creating a quasi-mythical reality (mythopoeia). The analysis draws on the structuralist conceptions of myth-making following the work of Lévi-Strauss and Roland Barthes expanded to the paradigm of social semiotics. The study demonstrates how the positioning of social actors creates cosmogonic relations between them. In this way, it subscribes into the project of sémiotique politique. It is argued that the key technique underlying the propaganda discourse is the dichotomization of reality reducible to a basic contrast between “communism” versus “capitalism.” Following Levi-Strauss, I analyze this dichotomization along the vertical and horizontal axes. I follow Barthes in treating myths not as a fundamental story but as a new unity of sense that is built over the common meanings. The material that informs this article is drawn from the early editions of the most influential daily newspaper in socialist Poland: Trybuna Ludu (People's Tribune) and a lifestyle weekly Przekrój

Aesthetics · Art · Capitalism · Communism · Epistemology · Literature · Media studies · Mythology · Newspaper · Political science · Politics · Semiotics · Social reality · Social science · Social semiotics · Sociology · European Cultural and National Identity · Law · Philosophy · Philosophy, History, and Historiography · Visual Culture and Art Theory