Introduction: Juri Lotman’s Semiotic Theory of History and Cultural Memory

With the advent of online distribution and the rise of multiple media devices, claims of the cinema’s imminent death have surfaced with greater intensity than ever before. Of course, with an ever-widening array of platforms these accounts have placed a newfound emphasis on the cinema as a distinctive physical space, one that plays host to a very particular and much cherished cultural activity. This article considers the substance of these claims by tracing a very particular historical route. Firstly, be revisiting Baudry’s notion of the dispositif, this article detects the importance of the physical environment in the process of film consumption. Secondly, I relate this emphasis on the physical to the traditional notion of the cinephile, a practice that ritualises the cinema experience. Many accounts across the spectrum of film history will attest to the profound ways in which the physical experience of the cinema summons a rich emotional response. Lastly, I consider how the cinema and the collective nature of film consumption provides an authentic trace to the past and a very certain time and place in history. In turn, despite competition from cheaper and more convenient platforms, this article will endeavour to show how the cinema retains its place at the centre of contemporary film culture. KEYWORDS Cinema, dispositif, cinephilia, cultural memory.

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Historia leksemu "badylarz" (na marginesie prac nad "Wielkim słownikiem języka polskiego PAN")

Język Polski ◽

10.31286/jp.100.3.8 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 100 (3) ◽

pp. 100-112

Author(s):

Jakub Bobrowski

Keyword(s):

Popular Culture ◽

19Th Century ◽

Interwar Period ◽

Digital Libraries ◽

Cultural Memory ◽

Left Wing ◽

Lexical Unit ◽

Use Of Data ◽

Polish Language ◽

The 19Th Century

The article explores the semantic and pragmatic evolution of the lexical unit "badylarz" (‘vegetable gardener’). The author challenges the generally accepted opinions about its history, making use of data from dictionaries, digital libraries and corpora of the Polish language. It is commonly believed that the word came into existence during the PRL era and belonged to the typical elements of the discourse of communist propaganda. An analysis of the collected data showed that the word "badylarz" existed as far back as the second half of the 19th century. Originally, it was a neutral lexeme, but in the interwar period it became one of the offensive names of class enemies, often used in left-wing newspapers. After the war, negative connotations of the word were disseminated through literature and popular culture. Nowadays, "badylarz" functions as the lexical exponent of cultural memory of communist times.

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