Speak the Culture

Andrew Whittaker

Description

The fifth book in Thorogood's groundbreaking series of cultural guides takes Poland as its subject. Written and produced in collaboration with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Speak the Culture: Poland provides a fast track to understanding the key events, figures and customs of this richly creative country in the heart of Europe.The book begins with an overview of the country's cultural foundations - the history, language and identity - before moving on to Poland's artistic achievements, from the Renaissance poetry of Mikolaj Rej to the contemporary films of Roman Polanski. The key figures of art, architecture, literature, philosophy, music, theatre and cinema are revealed succinctly and colourfully. A chapter on media outlines the main newspapers, magazines and television and radio stations. The final section of Speak the Culture: Poland covers the country's living culture - its religion, social mores, education, economy and more.Like previous titles in the series, Speak the Culture: Poland works as a thorough yet accessible accompaniment to travel, language learning and business relations. Only by grasping the culture of Poland will readers develop a fully rounded knowledge of this historic but little understood nation.

Sujets

• Strategic management

Informations

• Publié par: Thorogood Publishing
• Date de parution: 24 juillet 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781854188649
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

First published in e-book format 2013 Thorogood Publishing Ltd 10-12 Rivington Street London EC2A 3DU Telephone: [phone] Fax: [phone] Email: [e-mail] Web: www.thorogoodpublishing.co.uk
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 1854187880
9781854187888
This series of books and this book are designed to look at a country’s culture – to give readers a real grasp of it and to help them develop and explore that culture.
The world is shrinking – made smaller by commerce, tourism and migration – and yet the importance of national culture, of national identity, seems to grow.
By increasing your cultural knowledge and appreciation of a country, be it your own or a foreign land, you reach a genuine understanding of the people and how they live.
We’re talking about culture in all its guises: the creative arts that give a country its spirit as well as the culture of
everyday life.
Speak the Culture books sit alongside guidebooks and language courses, serving not only as a companionable good read but also as an invaluable tool for understanding a country’s current culture and its heritage.
Chapter One - Identity: the foundations of Polish culture
1.1 Geography
Poland has always been in thrall to its landscape. Lying at the heart of Europe, with little in the way of natural boundaries, the territory has long been a crossroads for people and cultures.
1.1.1 Where, what, who? Naming Polska Poles generally refer to their own country as ‘Polska’, although the official term is Rzeczpospolita Polska (Republic of Poland). The name is derivative of ‘Polans’, the Western Slavic tribe that came to dominate the Polish lowlands in the tenth century. Over the centuries, Polish writers have sometimes referred to their country as Lechia, after Lech (brother of Czech and Rus), a legendary Slav often credited with establishing the Polish nation.
Stuck in the middle
Poland lies in the centre of Europe, as close to the Atlantic Ocean as it is to the Ural Mountains. The culture here has been shaped by this location, influenced by the ebb and flow of Slavic, Germanic, Baltic and Jewish elements over the centuries to emerge as something distinctly ‘Polish’. Today, the country’s north-western border is open to the Baltic Sea; the rest of Poland is locked in by other nations, namely (clockwise from the Baltic) Russia (in the enclave oblast of Kaliningrad), Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Germany.
Lie of the land

The dominant physical feature of the Polish landscape is an extensive central plain – a lowland sweep of forest and field that has always left the country vulnerable to invasion and foreign rule, but which, equally, has encouraged the easy assimilation of cultures and peoples. On the southern frontiers, the lowlands give way first to hills and then to the Sudeten and Carpathian Mountains. The highest peaks are in the Carpathians, in particular the Tatra Mountains that line the border with Slovakia.


Poland’s largest rivers, the Oder (in the west) and the Vistula (central), drain into the Baltic Sea at either end of the country’s 300-mile long coastline, along which spits, lagoons, dunes and saltmarshes predominate. The country is also blessed with thousands of lakes (in Europe, only Finland has more in such density), the largest collection being in the Mazurian Lake District in the north-east. In the borderlands with Belarus, the Białowieża forest (one of 23 Polish national parks) is a last surviving fragment of the primeval woodland that once covered Europe’s lowlands.
What’s the weather like?
The Polish climate is often described as ‘moderate’ – a label to cling to when you’re shivering through the depths of a foggy, freezing winter in the central plains. Indeed, the country’s ‘central’ location, open to both maritime and continental airflows, generates a fickle climate that can vary significantly from year to year. However, a few generalisations can be applied: the maritime airflows of northern and western Poland bring relatively soft, humid winters and wet cool summers; whilst the continental air of the south and east can deliver bitter winters and hot summers, both of them relatively dry. The Poles sometimes talk about six seasons, squeezing an early spring ( przedwiośnie ) and early autumn (przedzimie) into the traditional calendar. And autumn isn’t just autumn, it’s the Golden Polish Autumn ( Złota Polska Jesień ). Culturally, the weather is a default conversation opener in Poland as it is elsewhere. In the years of Soviet rule, when the weather forecast was often more reliable than the news, TV forecasters became very popular, in particular Czesław Nowicki, nicknamed Wicherek (Breeze), and his female equivalent, Elżbieta Sommer, or Chmurka (Small Cloud). An evil wind… Poland has a fabled wind, the wiatr halny . It’s a foehn wind, usually a southerly created when air hits the mountains, rises rapidly, warms and then blows intensely down the mountains’ leeward slopes. Trees are felled, tiles ripped off roofs and, if the wind strikes in winter, snows rapidly thawed leading to floods and avalanches. Some think it also induces a mental malaise in the local population. The Góral highlanders of Podhale in the Tatra Mountains have woven the wiatr halny into their culture, using it in stories and poems.
Where do the Poles live?
In the second half of the 20th century, Poland matured from a largely rural society into one in which the majority of the population (almost two thirds) became urban. The major change occurred in the 30 years after the Second World War, hastened by the country’s rapid industrialisation and reconstruction. However, the scale of urbanisation has been less pronounced in Poland than in other developed nations, and Polish towns and cities remain relatively small and scattered. Only Warsaw has a population exceeding one million. Equally, Poland’s post-war experience may have created a wider cultural gulf between town and country than elsewhere in Europe. Poland’s peasant farming tradition survived remarkably well, even dodging Soviet collectivisation (unlike other Eastern Bloc countries), and rural areas have subsequently lagged – socially, materially and culturally – behind the towns and cities where rapid modernisation brought change to all spheres of life. Today, it seems the tide of movement from country to town has peaked. Vital statistics Area: 120,727 sq miles (312,685 sq km) (similar in size to Italy, or New Mexico) Highest mountain: Mount Rysy 8,200 ft (2,499m) Longest river: Vistula 651 miles (1,047km) Population: 38 million Life expectancy: 72 for men, 80 for women Median age: 38
Wanda takes one for the team There are several legends about Princess Wanda, daughter of Krakus, mythical founder of Kraków. One has her committing suicide by jumping into the Vistula. Having repelled the amorous advances and armies of a German prince, Wanda leapt into the river to save Poland from a possible procession of invasive suitors disgruntled at the princess’ refusal to lie back and (not) think of Poland.


1.1.2 Local colour: the województwo of Poland
Poland was rearranged into 16 provinces, or województwo , in 1999. Some correspond to historic regions (or portions thereof) dating back as far as the Middle Ages. Others have been hacked from more recent maps with expediency rather than history in mind. Even so, most have a distinct landscape and culture. All have an elected assembly ( sejmik ) and a governor ( wojewoda ).
North-west
Zachodniopomorskie (West Pomerania)
With long dune-backed Baltic beaches, lakes, the odd bison and a sparse population, Poland’s north-western corner is one of its least spoilt. For centuries, West Pomerania had Prussian rulers, and much of the region has only been Polish since 1945, when the German population was resettled westwards. Surviving medieval mercantile buildings recall the region’s Hanseatic League

connections, although most towns were devastated by the Second World War. The island of Wolin has older roots; Pagan Slavs (‘Pomeranians’) traded with Vikings from here in the eighth century.
Pomorskie (Pomerania)
The eastern chunk of old Pomerania was returned to Poland in 1919 after centuries of Prussian rule. The region abounds in lakes, set in rolling countryside; on the coast, the dunes of the Hel Peninsula and resorts like Sopot draw summer tourists. Gdańsk, rebuilt to its Hanseatic blueprint after the Second World War, links with Sopot and Gdynia to form a large conurbation. In the central lake-land region of Kashubia, the people retain the traditions and languages of their Western Slavic ancestors. Territorial nostalgia The lands that make up modern-day Poland have been arranged in many different ways over the centuries. Some of the old boundaries and identities live on in the