Oldal 26 [26]
24
Dagnostaw Demski in cooperation with A. Kassabova, I. Sz. Kristöf, L.Laineste and K. Baraniecka-Olszewska
caricatures and images of the Other that changed since the nineteenth century from
the political enemy to images from the distant world, and from the war frontlines
to simple entertainment? These questions have found a variety of responses in the
chapter discussing the functioning of socialist media targeting the outside world.
Detrez shows how the media in communist Albania in the 1960s and the 1970s
used the image of the West to criticize the Soviet Union. As a case study, Detrez
chose the political cartoons produced by Zef Bumçi, or Zefir, the representative of
Albanian culture, who became better known by foreign readers only recently.
Hristov presents a series of Bulgarian caricatures displayed at the exhibitions in
Sofia in 1953. It shows how the switch/twist/change of political allies by Tito, the
president of Yugoslavia, was received in Bulgaria. It is worth exploring how sudden
political decisions were being represented in the visual form of caricatures, what
techniques were used to discredit the opponent, and what particular channels of
communication were used to deliver this message to its audience.
Another aspect of shaping the inner society against the Other is presented by
Nedelcheva, who focuses on the same space and time and presents a case of visual
representation of the Other in a newspaper—the journal Glas na Balgarite v Yu¬
goslavia (‘Voice of Bulgarians in Yugoslavia’). This representation was designed to
legitimize certain notions and ideological constructions in favor of the Yugoslav
idea and at the same time to blacken and degrade Bulgaria.
The section “The Functioning of Socialist Media: Shaping Society by Inner
Divisions” depicts the opposite, inward, direction. Examples of the functioning
socialist media directed by maintaining inner divisions are presented by several
authors. Kaser presents statistical data on Yugoslavia and shows that competition
between presenting the U.S. movies versus Soviet Union movies in the cinemas
of Yugoslavia was a reflection of political Cold War tensions. However, the break
between Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union had additional consequences for Yugo¬
slav cinema. According to the author, the emerging problem was how to develop
an aesthetic local film language that was related neither to Socialist Realism nor to
Hollywood. Kaser shows to what extent visual mass entertainment was politicized
in the 1950s and 1960s.
Another approach to shaping society is presented by Ispan, who investigates
who were considered cultured and uncultured people by the communist regime
at the end of the 1940s and in the 1950s, the way this process of shaping society
was represented in the press, and finally what measures were taken to promote the
new cultured (i.e. socialist) way of life. The author points out the cultural and so¬
cial distinctions in the Hungarian adaptation of communism and two concepts of
culture (German and Soviet) competing in Hungary during this period. Ispän also
describes how photography was defined and used by socialist-realism in the 1950s.
Apart from cultural divisions, other divisions resulted from a state preference
for a particular socialist way of life, thus, religion became the target of the sharply
divided socialist state. Nazarska presents an interesting case of the religious Others,