Wspólnota naszych snów. O pamięci zapisanej w marzeniach sennych
The community of our dreams: On the memory written out in dreams

Summary/Abstract: The article presents Stefan Bednarek’s concept of studying dreams as a kind of collective memory. He claimed that in dreams one can find a condensed “Polish idiom: historically formed collective images of the national past.” Symbols, myths, legends and fantasies that manifest themselves in dreams can and do constitute cultural heritage (which consists of a literary canon as well as products of popular culture). It is possible to compose a national dream book out of them. In this concept dreams are treated as hidden sources of history of culture. Dreams offer an entrance to experience and emotions which are not easy of access; they are entwined with values that we ascribe to occurrences in our personal lives as well as to historic events. The sources that most commonly make note of dreams are memoirs and biographies. The article presents Bednarek’s culturological research on the dreams of Polish people in the PRL period (especially during martial law) with a mind to answer the question of whether we can also find such a community of our dreams today.

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