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Barthes revisited - myths and mythology in the current Catholic discourse in Poland
21 January 2015, 5:15 pm
Event Information
Location
-
Room 431, 果冻影院 SSEES Building, 16 Taviton Street, London, WC1H 0BW
Dr Aleksander Gomola (Jagiellonian University, Krak贸w)
In聽Poland, with around 40 percent of the
population聽churchgoers,聽the opinions and ideas expressed by the
Catholic clergy are still significant. These opinions and ideas are not
so聽visible outside Poland since the medium of church sermons are
overlooked, ignored or simply not known to outsiders. However they affect
the聽attitudes and decisions of members of Polish society including
politicians.
In my talk, I will聽present a brief insight into some aspects of these sermons, especially the ones that draw on聽topics from聽recent Polish history, such as聽communist rule, the Polish Pope, joining the UE or the Smole艅sk air crash in 2010. These and other elements are very often the聽building blocks of the聽Catholic-nationalistic mythology/ideology present in these sermons, which聽shape聽the vision of the modern world and position of Poland in it of a significant part of those who listen to them. Without knowledge of this current Catholic discourse it is difficult to understand and interpret the political and social situation聽of Poland today.