TY - JOUR

T1 - Beyond Outrage

T2 - Approaching Arts Controversy in Postcommunist Poland

AU - Pluwak, Anita

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - In recent decades, public disagreements over artistic expression have emerged as a key feature of contemporary democratic culture. This has also been the case in the formerly communist countries of East and Central Europe such as Poland where persistent arts controversy has become a central component of the postcommunist era. This article explores the characteristics of postcommunist Poland’s arts conflicts, how they relate to other models of contemporary arts controversy, and what might be deemed their specific “postcommunist” qualities. It also looks into the evolution of how arts controversy has been understood and interpreted in Poland after 1989—from the 1990s’ scandalous outrage with mostly visual arts, through the decisive cultural and political turning points of the following decade, up to the debates of recent years about controversial theatre productions like Golgota Picnic (2014), the public sphere and the outcomes of postcommunist transformation

AB - In recent decades, public disagreements over artistic expression have emerged as a key feature of contemporary democratic culture. This has also been the case in the formerly communist countries of East and Central Europe such as Poland where persistent arts controversy has become a central component of the postcommunist era. This article explores the characteristics of postcommunist Poland’s arts conflicts, how they relate to other models of contemporary arts controversy, and what might be deemed their specific “postcommunist” qualities. It also looks into the evolution of how arts controversy has been understood and interpreted in Poland after 1989—from the 1990s’ scandalous outrage with mostly visual arts, through the decisive cultural and political turning points of the following decade, up to the debates of recent years about controversial theatre productions like Golgota Picnic (2014), the public sphere and the outcomes of postcommunist transformation

U2 - 10.1177/0888325420928417

DO - 10.1177/0888325420928417

M3 - Journal article

VL - 35

SP - 682

EP - 702

JO - East European Politics and Societies

JF - East European Politics and Societies

SN - 0888-3254

IS - 3

ER -