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Dagnostaw Demski in cooperation with A. Kassabova, I. Sz. Kristöf, L.Laineste and K. Baraniecka-Olszewska
World War I changed the optics on the Other significantly. The old social order
fell; the old values supporting the network of relations lost their significance under
the new circumstances. Then, the interwar period brought a new order, based on
the ruins of the older social divisions and, politically, on the ruins of old empires.
A recognition of ethnic divisions still existed—they preserved their weight—but
the divisions began to be perceived and interpreted from many local points of view
(new nation-states). Wartime seemed to be a period during which the image of the
Other was especially in the centre of attention.
As our focus shifted later to World War II and much attention was paid to pho¬
tography as a new medium that created the illusion of providing a faithful record of
reality (Demski, Laineste & Baraniecka-Olszewska 2015: 13). There was a visible
contrast between the grotesque presentations in caricatures aiming to sketch and
exaggerate, and photography, which aimed to depict “neutrally”. WWII, however,
triggered extreme polarizations and these were reflected in the visual representa¬
tions. The horrors of war, the tragic human losses, and the almost constant mortal
danger caused shock and, after the war, invited reflection. A new era began. People
still described their “reality” focusing on differences and the othering of the un¬
known, but they did it in a new way. The period after the end of WWII brought
new state boundaries and new political relations in central and eastern Europe—
that is, the Cold War started and the iron curtain was lowered—which to some
degree prolonged mechanisms of othering established during WWII. The Other,
as we presented in the third volume in the series, was still depicted as an enemy, an
invader, and an occupant.
During the postwar period, however, the social structure changed, old hier¬
archies fell, and social relations were transformed. The range of regional contacts
expanded. The authors of the current volume investigate the role that the new
types of visual media played in restructuring a world depressed and ridden by wars
and study the people’s ability and will to use that media—for example, in funeral
culture, tourism, and advertising or, for that matter, in pop culture, which was also
disseminated through the new media. Were the new visual media still a way of con¬
ceptualizing reality? In the context of this volume we raise questions referring to the
Other and its visual representations in central and eastern Europe in 1945-1980.
Analyzing the illustrations, caricatures, and photographs published in the previ¬
ous volumes, we were aiming at investigating whether there is an eastern European
way of perceiving and depicting the Other. We wanted to check whether—despite
the adoption of numerous of ideas, patterns, and cultural clichés from western
Europe—tegional specificities allowed us to speak about certain “eastern European
eyes” (Demski & Sz. Kristéf 2013: 13), a particular way of looking on otherness.
It is precisely to grasp this specific eastern European gaze that has been the main
goal of the entire series and which, therefore, underpins the current, last volume.
We have found that the context of representing the Other has its own east-central
European particularity. Mutual relations of neighboring countries and common