{"id":1927,"date":"2012-01-06T10:00:14","date_gmt":"2012-01-06T08:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elanguage.net\/blogs\/booknotices\/?p=1927"},"modified":"2012-01-03T10:08:20","modified_gmt":"2012-01-03T08:08:20","slug":"the-post-communist-condition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/?p=1927","title":{"rendered":"The post-communist condition"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;\"><strong>The post-communist condition: <\/strong>Public and private discourses of transformation. Ed. by <strong>Aleksandra Galasi\u0144ska<\/strong> and <strong>Dariusz Galasi\u0144ski<\/strong>. (Discourse approaches to politics, society and culture\u00a0 37.) Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2010. Pp. xi, 264. ISBN 9789027206282. $143 (Hb).<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">Reviewed by <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/linguistlist.org\/people\/personal\/get-personal-page2.cfm?PersonID=29502\">Richard W. Hallett<\/a><\/strong>, <em>Northeastern Illinois University<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Noting the \u2018significant paucity of research into the discourses of and within postcommunism\u2019 (4), the editors state that the chapters in this volume focus on various levels of discourse within post-communist Poland. In their first chapter, \u2018Living between history and the present: The Polish post-communist condition\u2019 (1\u201320), they present a short overview of Polish history and of the chapters that follow. The remainder of the book is divided into three main sections.<\/p>\n<p>Part 1 contains four chapters. The Polish in the title \u2018<em>Nie rzucim ziemi sk\u0105d nasz r\u00f3d<\/em>: Polish contemporary discourses about soil and nation\u2019 (23\u201345) translates into English as \u2018We\u2019ll not abandon the land of our kin\u2019. In this chapter, <strong>Micha\u0142 Buchowski<\/strong> provides a case study of \u2018blood\u2019 and \u2018soil\u2019 metaphors used in the discussion of the possible purchase of Polish land by foreigners after Poland\u2019s accession to the European Union. In the following chapter, \u2018Collective memory in transition: Commemorating the end of the Second World War in Poland\u2019 (47\u201365), <strong>Anna Horolets<\/strong> provides a critical discourse analysis of the discourse of Victory Day in Europe before and after 1989. In the following chapter (67\u201387), <strong>Imke Hansen<\/strong> offers a historical discourse analysis of the public debate in the Polish press concerning the \u2018Cross Conflict\u2019 near Auschwitz primarily between 1997 and 1999. Noting the dearth of literature on International Workers\u2019 Day (May 1) festivities in Poland, <strong>Dariusz Galasi\u0144ski<\/strong> presents a study of the narrated experiences of three different generations in the remaining chapter (89\u2013102).<\/p>\n<p>Four chapters comprise Part 2, beginning with \u2018Denying the right to speak in public: Sexist and homophobic discourses in post-1989 Poland\u2019 (105\u201329), in which <strong>Natalia Krzy\u017canowska<\/strong> offers a discourse historical approach to her analysis of the coverage of a sex affair\/scandal in Samoobrona in late 2006 by three different Polish newspapers. <strong>Katarzyna Skowronek<\/strong> provides a \u2018functionally-oriented discourse analysis\u2019 (132) of pastoral letters and sermons by Polish clergy in her chapter (131\u201350). In \u2018Fashioning a post-communist political identity: The case of Poland\u2019s Democratic Left Alliance\u2019 (151\u201366), <strong>Robert Brier<\/strong> analyzes how Poland\u2019s main post-communist political party legitimized its \u2018pragmatic identity\u2019 (159). In the remaining chapter (167\u201387), <strong>Marta Kurkowska-Budzan<\/strong> studies the publications of the Institute of National Remembrance to reconstruct its objectives, values, and historical themes, inter alia.<\/p>\n<p>Part 3 contains four chapters, led by a chapter (191\u2013209) from <strong>Aleksandra Galasi\u0144ska<\/strong>.\u00a0 Beginning with a definition of \u2018work\u2019, she shows \u2018how work is constructed as a dominant subject in the discussion about the post-communist transformation\u2019 (192) in her interviews in a neighborhood in a large city in southern Poland and a rural community in southeastern Poland.\u00a0 In the following chapter, \u2018Transition to nowhere: Homelessness in post-communist Poland as the hand of fate\u2019 (211\u201327), <strong>Maria Mendel<\/strong> and <strong>Tomasz Szkudlarek<\/strong> present seven biographical narratives from homeless people in Gda\u0144sk. Through interviews with Polish migrants to Britain and Ireland after Poland\u2019s accession to the European Union, <strong>Ma\u0142gorzata Fabiszak<\/strong> discovers two conceptual metaphors in their narratives in her chapter (229\u201345). Lastly, based on twenty-one interviews, Dariusz Galasi\u0144ski investigates men\u2019s constructions of their masculine identities in their post-communist narratives in the final chapter, \u2018Post-communist masculinities\u2019 (247\u201362).<\/p>\n<p>This book is a welcome addition to courses on discourse analysis, identity studies, and post-communist studies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The post-communist condition: Public and private discourses of transformation. Ed. by Aleksandra Galasi\u0144ska and Dariusz Galasi\u0144ski. (Discourse approaches to politics, society and culture\u00a0 37.) Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2010. Pp. xi, 264. ISBN 9789027206282. $143 (Hb). Reviewed by Richard W. Hallett, Northeastern Illinois University Noting the \u2018significant paucity of research into the discourses of and within [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1927"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1927"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1928,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1927\/revisions\/1928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}