Visual propaganda or simple entertainment? Golden age of Polish comics and the cultural policy of the Polish People's Republic
Visual propaganda or simple entertainment? Golden age of Polish comics and the cultural policy of the Polish People's Republic

Summary/Abstract: The distinctive language of comics makes it well suited to various political purposes. The 70s of the 20th century were the age of cultural opening to the western popular culture in Poland. Many comic book series and magazine Relax gained acclaim among the readers. These publications were aimed at upholding cultural hegemony of the Polish People's Republic political regime, prove its ideological appeal as well as educate the new socialist man. On the other hand, as the recollections of comic book authors from that era suggest, they had seen themselves as providers of entertainment. The aim of the article is to look at the tension between the two aforementioned ways of perceiving the comic books published in the period concerned and to evaluate the degree of their involvement on the side of the political regime. The British School of Cultural Studies approach, defining popular culture as inherently political, will be employed to analyse the involvement of comics in upholding of the domination of the Polish non-democratic regime. Through the analysis of the historical and social context and the comics texts themselves, it will be possible to see to what extent comics published during the golden age of Polish comics were a tool of propaganda as opposed to just innocent entertainment.

• Details
• Contents