The Politics of Catastrophe: Poland’s Presidential Crash and the Ideology of Post-postcommunism
The Politics of Catastrophe: Poland’s Presidential Crash and the Ideology of Post-postcommunism

Summary/Abstract: The catastrophe of the presidential plane crash in April 2010 was of course a farreaching event in Polish politics, with consequences still very present. The article describes and interprets various ways of speaking about the catastrophe. I consider this rhetoric in the context of a clash of ideologies: that of modernization and of nationalreligious values. The conservative camp insists on inscribing the crash into Polish history and claims that it reveals a division into two Polands: one of true patriots and another of collaborators. I analyze this narrative through post-Marxist political theory, particularly Laclau and Mouffe and the concept of ideology developed by Bakhtin/Voloshinov. Ideology is understood as a complicated language phenomenon that permeates all spheres of everyday life as well as generates political programs. I then analyze the political consequences of the catastrophe through the concept of “postpostcommunism” and show how the catastrophe’s complicated symbolic representation has shaped Polish political discourse.

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