Church–Party–Theater: Diffuse Censorship in the Polish People’s Republic
Marcin Kościelniak
marcin.koscielniak@uj.edu.plJagiellonian University (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8738-9116
Abstract
This article analyzes the events around the attempt of Catholic Church officials to block the premiere of Odpocznij po biegu (Rest after the Race), a play based on Władysław Terlecki’s novel, directed by Zygmunt Hübner (prem. 11 November 1976 in Teatr Powszechny, Warsaw). The author demonstrates the mechanisms of censorship in the Polish People’s Republic based on correspondence, partly unknown before, between the Church, the government, and the theater, as well as juxtaposing media accounts about the play and the instructions and reports of state censorship. He posits that the identification of censorship with the institution of the Chief Office for the Control of the Press, Publications, and Public Performances (GUKPPiW), established in narratives about People’s Poland, is insufficient and erroneous. Instead, he proposes an approach drawing on the concept of diffuse censorship, understood as a practice resulting from the interconnections and interdependencies between the Church, the Party, and the theater, in which the office of state censorship was not the only agent. These interconnections were particularly important in cases involving the protection of religious feelings.
Keywords:
censorship after 1945, self-censorship, Polish People’s Republic, Catholic Church, Teatr Powszechny in Warsaw, Zygmunt Hübner, Władysław Terlecki, Jasna Góra MonasteryReferences
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Authors
Marcin Kościelniakmarcin.koscielniak@uj.edu.pl
Jagiellonian University Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8738-9116
Marcin Kościelniak - Associate Professor in the Department of Theater and Drama of the Jagiellonian University. Editor of the journal Didaskalia. Gazeta Teatralna. Member of the editorial committee of the book series "Teatr/Konstelacje" at the Jagiellonian University Publishing House. He published articles in Teksty Drugie, Pamiętnik Teatralny, Widok, Czas Kultury. He recently published the book Egoiści: Trzecia droga w kulturze polskiej lat 80. (2018) and co-edited Teatr a Kościół (2018). His research interests include the culture of the Polish People’s Republic, the political history of the Polish transformation and the history of theater, performing and visual arts of the 20th and 21st centuries. He is currently conducting a research project on the genealogy of the abortion compromise in Poland and the first feminist mobilization against the draft banning abortion in May 1989.
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