Page 26 [26]
OCR
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 Yugoslavia (‘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 Yugoslav 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 social 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,
