The Voice and the Eye: Visual Regimes of Polish Competition Memoir, 1930–1984 Cover Image

Głos i oko. Reżimy wizualne polskich pamiętników konkursowych (1930-1984)
The Voice and the Eye: Visual Regimes of Polish Competition Memoir, 1930–1984

Author(s): Katherine Lebow
Contributor(s): Anna Róża Hoss (Translator)
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies
Published by: Instytut Badań Literackich Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: visual experience; memoir writing competitions; counter-visuality

Summary/Abstract: The narratives produced in the framework of Polish memoir writing competitions beforeand after World War II offer a point of entry for studying what Martin Jay has termedthe “tacit cultural rules of different scopic regimes.” In both periods, memoirs werepart of more extensive political projects that validated new ways of “seeing.” Interwarpeasant and worker movements, contesting cultural assumptions about the “ignorant”or “benighted” lower classes, claimed that the worldview of their representatives was asimportant as that of the ruling classes. Postwar communism emphasized the visionaryability of politically conscious individuals to look beyond present realities and see futurerevolutionary possibilities. In practice, memoirs both draw and deviate from these scripts,demonstrating limits of the two visionary projects.

  • Issue Year: 2024
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 161-183
  • Page Count: 23
  • Language: Polish
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