“The Różańskis, the Fejgins, the Bermans.” Jewish Communists as a Collective Entity in the Polish Collective Imagination
“The Różańskis, the Fejgins, the Bermans.” Jewish Communists as a Collective Entity in the Polish Collective Imagination

Summary/Abstract: This text focuses on the peculiar personification of “Jewish Bolshevism” which has been recreated in various circuits of Polish culture since 1989. In order to present current ways in which “Jewish Bolshevism” functions as a demonic collective entity, the authors reached for various sources and to various circuits of Polish culture, including scientific and journalistic articles, academic monographs and fiction, news media coverage, as well as feature films and documentaries. The goal of the article is to demonstrate that in the case of the stereotype analysed here, these discourses resonate and complement each other, constituting a consensual universe of socially produced beliefs. The authors attempt to draw up a map of occurrences of the “Jewish Bolshevism” theme along with the tools used to affix it there (e.g.,rhetorical figures, clichés, templates). Research methods used in the article have been developed by several scientific disciplines: cultural anthropology, sociology of culture, sociology of knowledge, communication studies, and the study of public discourse. It is important to emphasize that this text is not about Jewish communists as individuals who defined themselves as such, but about their symbolic place in Polish culture as produced by the dominant discourse.

• Details
• Contents