PRL monetized – nostalgia and communication memory narratives

Abstract

The communist period (especially the 1970s and 1980s) was a time of great economic difficulties for Poland. In the cultural sphere, the country, which belonged to the Eastern Bloc, was strictly controlled by the party authorities and censorship. However, people felt they wanted something different – mainly Western goods. American pop culture infiltrated through the Iron Curtain, sparking the imagination of Eastern Bloc residents, who tried in various ways to learn about it and translate it into familiar realities. About 45 years have passed since then. The People’s Republic of Poland and memorabilia from that period are beginning to be increasingly the subject of online auctions and collectors’ interest. In the entertainment sector, films are being made that treat this time as an interesting and as yet unexploited matrix for telling stories that are more or less true. The effects of Americanization and the modern capitalist mentality are slowly mixing with the communicative memory which, in the end, opens the way for monetizing nostalgia.