Przedwojnie i powojnie – podzielony świat w wizji modernizacji powojennej prasy codziennej (Łódź 1945–1948)
Prewar and postwar. The divided world of modernisation visions in the daily press (Łódź 1945–1948)

Summary/Abstract: The first years after WWII were a time to create the world anew. It was a moment of redefinition andsettling on a new meaning for old words. My examination of postwar press reveals its organisationaround two opposite categories: the prewar and the postwar reality. Analysing four dailies publishedin the Polish industrial centre of Łódź between 1945 and 1949, I trace a binary logic of discourse.I reconstruct how meanings were settled anew as was the role of the industrial city in postwarPoland. What was a reference point for the modernisation visions described by the press? Wherewere the described social changestaking place? Wasthere any reason to reconstruct elements of theprewar period? This paper also examines the postwar press from a slightly different angle than isusually done. Firstly, it opposes the newspeak perspective. Secondly, it underlines not the politicalmobilisation but rather the cooling-down of political emotions and the coalition-building for thecountry’s reconstruction. From this perspective, the binary logic of discourse is just a universalfeature of any hegemonic language and it aims at inclusion, not mobilisation.

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