Anthropology of Postsocialism (Theory & Fieldwork) 3102-FANP
This course explores socialist and post-socialist transformations in Poland and Germany from an anthropological perspective, focusing on the relationship between memory, nostalgia and power. It examines how socialist regimes produced and staged historical narratives through symbols, rituals, and everyday practices, and how these pasts are remembered, reinterpreted, and politically mobilised today.
Particular attention is given to the role of public space, education, and media in shaping competing memory cultures, as well as to phenomena such as nostalgia and the contemporary uses of history. The course combines theoretical approaches to postsocialism with empirical, fieldwork-based learning. Within the course, students will participate in the German–Polish bilateral exchange project Make History, Not Fakes – German-Polish Exchange on Propaganda, Culture of Remembrance, and Civic Education, coordinated by the Garnisonkirche Potsdam Foundation and Stowarzyszenie Pracownia Etnograficzna. As part of this programme, they will collaboratively engage in urban observation, mapping, and the critical analysis of commemorative sites and historical narratives in Warsaw (23 – 26 November 2026) and Potsdam (22-26 February 2027).
By comparing Polish and German cases, the course aims to develop a nuanced understanding of how socialist pasts continue to inform democratic cultures, public debates, and media literacy. It also encourages critical reflection on transnational academic exchange as a space of knowledge production and power.
During the course, we will explore the following problems:
• From socialism to post-socialism: key transformations in European memory cultures since 1945 and their contemporary implications.
• Comparative memory cultures: how the communist past is negotiated differently across European contexts, particularly in Poland and Germany.
• Politics and uses of the past: how socialist pasts are remembered, reinterpreted, and instrumentalized in museums, urban spaces, education, and political debates.
• Representing socialism: how the history of communism is taught and narrated in Poland and (former) East Germany across educational, public, and media contexts.
• Urban space as a medium of political narratives: how planning, architecture, and monuments project and reproduce ideological visions.
Koordynatorzy przedmiotu
Rodzaj przedmiotu
Założenia (opisowo)
Efekty kształcenia
The student is able to compare different approaches to remembering communism in Poland and Germany, identifying key similarities, differences, and their political implications.
The student becomes more reflexive in engaging with contested interpretations of the socialist past and their role in contemporary culture.
The student is able to analyze and interpret how urban space, architecture, and public symbols function as carriers of political narratives and historical memory.
The student develops the ability to critically assess how the socialist past is represented, taught, and instrumentalized, particularly in the urban landscape and museums.
The student gains practical skills in analyzing and presenting historical and cultural material in both academic and public settings, including site-based interpretation.
Kryteria oceniania
• Completion of assigned readings and active engagement in seminar discussions, including oral contributions.
• Active participation in class, including the preparation of short written reflections and/or a presentation on a selected course-related topic.
• Mandatory participation in fieldwork in Warsaw (23–26 November 2026) and Potsdam (22–26 February 2027), including the preparation and delivery of assigned tasks and on-site presentations.
Literatura
Selected literature:
Aldea, S. (n.d.). Reinterpreting socialist symbols. https://arhitectura-1906.ro/en/2016/07/reinterpreting-socialist-symbols-reinterpreting-socialist-symbols/
Bach, J., & Murawski, M. (Eds.). (2020). Re-centring the city: Global mutations of socialist modernity. UCL Press.
Barney, T. (2009). When we was red: Good Bye Lenin! and nostalgia for the “everyday GDR.” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 6(2), 132–151. https://doi.org/10.1080/14791420902833163
Bartmański, D. (2022). Matters of revolution: Urban spaces and symbolic politics in Berlin and Warsaw after 1989. Routledge.
Berdahl, D. (1999). ‘(N)Ostalgie’ for the present: Memory, longing, and East German things. Ethnos, 64(2), 192–211. https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.1999.9981598
Boyer, D. (2006). From algos to autonomos: Nostalgic Eastern Europe as postimperial mania. Anthropological Quarterly, 79(2), 361–381.
Boym, S. (2001). The future of nostalgia. Basic Books.
Chari, S., & Verdery, K. (2009). Thinking between the posts: Postcolonialism, postsocialism, and ethnography after the Cold War. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 51(1), 6–34.
Czaplicka, J., Gelazis, N., & Ruble, B. A. (Eds.). (2009). Cities after the fall of communism: Reshaping cultural landscapes and European identity. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Czepczyński, M. (2010). Interpreting post-socialist icons: From pride and hate towards disappearance and/or assimilation. Human Geographies – Journal of Studies and Research in Human Geography, 4(1), 67–78.
Dale, G. (2007). Heimat, “Ostalgie” and the Stasi: The GDR in German cinema, 1999–2006. Debatte: Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe, 15(2), 155–175. https://doi.org/10.1080/09651560701483253
Darieva, T., Kaschuba, W., & Krebs, M. (Eds.). (2012). Urban spaces after socialism: Ethnographies of public places in Eurasian cities. Campus Verlag.
Diener, A. C., & Hagen, J. (2013). From socialist to post-socialist cities: Narrating the nation through urban space. Nationalities Papers, 41(4), 487–514. https://doi.org/10.1080/00905992.2013.768217
Dimitrova, K. (2016). Appropriation of urban space as resistance: The Soviet Army monument in Sofia. Critique & Humanism, 46.
Gallinat, A. (2022). The anthropology of post-socialism: Theoretical legacies and conceptual futures – An introduction. Critique of Anthropology, 42(2), 103–113.
Grębecka, Z. (2006). Słowo magiczne poddane technologii: Magia ludowa w praktykach postsowieckiej kultury popularnej. Zakład Wydawniczy Nomos.
Grębecka, Z., & Sadowski, J. (Eds.). (2007). Pałac Kultury i Nauki: Między ideologią a masową wyobraźnią. Zakład Wydawniczy Nomos.
Hann, C. (Ed.). (2002). Postsocialism: Ideals, ideologies and practices in Eurasia. Routledge.
Iordachi, C., & Apor, P. (Eds.). (2021). Occupation and communism in Eastern European museums: Re-visualizing the recent past. Bloomsbury Academic.
Jeffery, L., & Váradi, A. (Eds.). (2025). Replaying communism: Trauma and nostalgia in European cultural production. Central European University Press.
Kubik, J. (1994). The power of symbols against the symbols of power: The rise of Solidarity and the fall of state socialism in Poland. Pennsylvania State University Press.
Macdonald, S. (2013). Memorylands: Heritage and identity in Europe today. Routledge.
Moore, D. C. (2001). Is the post- in post-Soviet the post- in postcolonial? Toward a global postcolonial critique. PMLA, 116(1), 111–128.
Mrozik, A., & Holubec, S. (Eds.). (2020). Historical memory of Central and East European communism. Routledge.
Murawski, M. (2019). The palace complex: A Stalinist skyscraper, capitalist Warsaw and a city transfixed. Indiana University Press.
Norris, S. M. (Ed.). (2020). Museums of communism: New memory sites in Central and Eastern Europe. Indiana University Press.
Pakier, M., & Stråth, B. (Eds.). (2010). A European memory? Contested histories and politics of remembrance. Berghahn Books.
Todorova, M., Dimou, A., & Troebst, S. (Eds.). (2014). Remembering communism: Private and public recollections of lived experience in Southeast Europe. Central European University Press.
Verdery, K. (1996). What was socialism, and what comes next? Princeton University Press.
Zombory, M. (2017). The birth of the memory of communism: Memorial museums in Europe. Nationalities Papers, 45(6), 1028–1046. https://doi.org/10.1080/00905992.2017.1339680
Uwagi
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W cyklu 2026:
Enrollment in this course requires completing a dedicated application form. The instructor reserves the right to select participants. |