Stories Of/In Transformation

How does literature perform and introduce economic, political and social changes? This is one of the most important questions of this study in which literature is seen as a seismograph of a social change. Through narratives in literature, but also in other cultural products such as movies, tv series, song lyrics, games etc. we reflect on how we perceive various phenomena and at the same time, by describing our perception, we confirm it and shape reality. To put it simple: We tell us the story that we identify as our life and our world and give them a meaning. The study examines this by telling the complex and until now untold history of post-socialist transformation, based on the study of literary narratives about inequality in Poland. The Polish transformation is exemplary for transitioning from one economic-political system to another, with all its socio-cultural consequences in the latest history of East-Central Europe. The renegotiation of inequalities is important, because these processes play a special role in changing and introducing new social structures during transformations: power structures shifts, the bad guys are seen as good now, what was underground is mainstream. The emerging shifting inequalities are mostly of three kinds: social, gender, and ethnic. By tracing changes in structures of literature, literature business and the reception of literature in public discourse such as awards for a literary work, its importance in public debate, bestseller-lists and controversies in literary criticism, the study reveals the interactions between politics, economy, and literature during transformation. Last, but not least this project shows that literature is still important in the contemporary world: It is a valuable medium in understanding and shaping the world in its economic, political, and social dimension.