Preface
The twenty-year interwar period (1918–39), seen from a contemporary perspective, is on one hand interesting, on the other the stuff of nostalgia or a subject for research. The restoration of Poland’s independence on 11 November 1918 initiated, inter alia, the dynamic development of art and science. However, this development was brutally interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War.
Later years, especially after 1991, brought disputes and discussions about almost every aspect of the Second Republic. These discussions were often subject to myth¬ologisation or ideologisation, obscuring the actual subject of the research. Therefore, in the present monograph, we have decided to look into issues look into issues of the film art and the art of theater as well as profiles of the artists of the 1920s and 30s. The research perspective proposed in the present monograph finds its place at the intersection of research disciplines such as the anthropology of culture and the anthropology of film and theater, as well as cultural semiotics, discourse analysis, and the most recent neurocultural approaches.
The authors propose interdisciplinary research approaches which, nevertheless, as a whole, they fit methodologically into the programme of anthropological semiotics, the main thesis of which was formulated by Milton Singer in 1978 in his paper entitled For a Semiotic Anthropology.
In Polish literature, the term anthropological semiotics is a relatively new one, but this is not to suggest that anthropological semiotics, defined as a set of methodo¬logical practices, was not employed by Polish researchers. The pioneer of (immanent) anthropological semiotics in Polish literature was most likely Jerzy Faryno, who, assuming the cultural semiotics of Yuri Lotman as a basis for reasoning, undertook in his research the task of identifying sign systems of cultural texts in their current ‘social life’. Anthropological semiotics focuses, on one hand, on the understanding of sign systems ‘entwined’ in human social life, and on the other on processes taking place within specific social structures which generate, update, or replace some mean¬ings and the way they are manifested in others. In order to combine these theoretical assumptions, it is necessary to become acquainted with the so-called cultural context of the occurrance of sign systems. To this end, we are convinced that the arrangement of articles which we offer in the present monograph reflects this idea.
The material presented in Parts I and III has been arranged in sequence from a case study made from a historical perspective to one from a contemporary per-spective – here, from that of psychoculture (neuroculture) in part I and from that of discourse analysis in part III. In Part II, we have departed from this principle in the case of material presenting little-known aspects of the history of Polish cinema in the interwar period.
Part I, entitled ‘Artistic Profiles. Practical Methods of Anthropological Semiot-ics, and Neuroculture’, consists of four articles. Eliza Pomichowska, in an article entitled The Death of Eugeniusz Bodo. Facts vs Reality, has investigated the various
narratives concerning the death of Eugeniusz Bodo which appeared in the Polish press and related literature in the post-war years. Julia Roguska offers a synthet¬ic discussion on the artistic profile of Mikhail (Michael) Chekhov in an article entitled In Search of Synthesis. The Life and Work of Mikhail Chekhov. Natalia Rytelewska, in an article entitled Nikolai Evreinov in Poland, 1918‒1939, has re-constructed, based on rich source material, the reception of the dramatic work of Evreinov in Poland in the years 1918‒39. Jolanta Kociuba, in an article entitled A Study of the Neurocultural Determinants of the Identity of an Actor, raises, on the basis of rich empirical material, important issues of identity from the perspective of psychological research.
Part II, ‘History of the Animated Cinema, Sound Cinema, and Amateur Theatre. The Semiotics of Film and Theatre’, consists of three articles. Jarosław Królikowski, in an article entitled An Outline of the State of Polish Sound Cinema in the Interwar Period from 1929‒39, discusses the beginnings of sound cinema in Poland, drawing attention to problems (economic, technological, and artistic) with which Polish sound cinema of that period had to struggle. Monika Grącka, in an article entitled From the History of Polish Animation of the Interwar Period, focuses on Polish traditions and achievements in the field of animated film. Maciej Kozłowski’s article, entitled Visual Poetic Narration in the Film The Adventures of a Good Citizen by Franciszka and Stefan Themerson, discusses the issue of the language of film and the avant-garde narrative techniques used by the filmmakers; the work of Franciszka and Stefan Themerson serves as Kozłowski’s exemplary material.
In Part III, ‘Theatre and Cinema on Cultural Borders. Discourse Analysis’, we present three articles. Olga Kich-Masłej discusses the history of an amateur theatre in Wierzbica; her article, entitled Ukrainian Amateur Theatre in the Village of Wier-zbica. The Polish-Ukrainian border in the 1920s and 30 contains valuable analysis carried out from the perspective of the history of everyday life as well as of that of anthropological semiotics. An article by Lesława Korenowska and Zhanna Nurmano-va entitled Байопики о писателях: новый взгляд на киноклассику советской эпохи [Biopics about Writers: A Fresh Look at Soviet-Era Classic Films] takes up the sub¬ject of Soviet biographical film. The authors succinctly present the story of this film genre, after which they focus on a comparative analysis of biographical films about Alexander Pushkin and Abay Kunanbaev [also written Abai Qunanbaiuli], justifying their selection by the fact that both poets played an important role in the development of the literature of their respect ive nations. Part III closes with an article by Yelena Karetina entitled Understanding Propaganda: The Image of Poland in Soviet Cinema of the 1930s on the Example of the Film Border Is Locked Tight, in which the author discusses the tools of visual propaganda with which the Soviet government attempted to prepare the nation for the coming war.
