Space,time and history in the Polish People’s Republic: the trilogy Sami swoi,Nie ma mocnych,Kochaj albo rzuć

Abstract

The article discusses the meanings of popular culture, authenticity and history in People’s Republic of Poland. As an example it uses a popular film trilogy. The trilogy Sami swoi, Nie ma mocnych and Kochaj albo rzu? (‘All friends here’, ‘Take it easy’ and ‘Love or leave me’) was shown in Polish cinemas between 1967 and 1977. The reviews were written just after the premières. The article uses the concepts of time and space elaborated by Mikhail Bakhtin and Doreen Massey to analyze the different chronotopes of the films. It analyses both the films and the reviews as strategies of creating authenticity and creating cultural meanings: the meaning of history and the meanings of rurality. I will show how history and present, memory and society are interwoven in the light of popular production. In addition, I will emphasize the diverse interpretation possibilities resulting from this micro-historical view and the transnational critique of modernism highlighting the small and local which emerged throughout Europe in the 1970s.     

Underwater Archaeology on Foot: a Systematic Rapid Foreshore Survey on the North Kent Coast, England

Foreshore archaeology can be considered 'underwater archaeology on foot', because it is possible to investigate the archaeological heritage at low tide without the need for diving. Rising sea-levels, increasing coastal erosion and the loss of important foreshore environments make immediate action necessary. In 2005, Wessex Archaeology was commissioned by Kent County Council, supported by English Heritage, to continue a Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey on the North Kent Coast as part of a project started in 2001. In four weeks 378 monuments were updated and 198 new monuments recorded, among them a submerged forest, a trackway, several fish-traps and shipwrecks.
© 2007 The Authors