Symbolic politics of public time and collective memory. The Polish case

Abstract

Symbolic construction of the state identity is analysed, along with the symbolic politics of the state toward the past. The great systemic change is conceived as a symbolic transformation where the growth of semiotic behaviour is clearly noticeable. The analysis deals with the changes in the public holidays calendar in Poland: the communist symbolic strategies, symbolic politics of the Solidarity movement and the anti-politics of symbolization in the third Republic of Poland. It discusses problems of the symbolic control of historicity.