Oldal 486 [486]
484
Lilia Uzlowa
The Postcard: A Visual and Textual Form
of Communication
The sent postcard, a classic instrument of communication related mainly to
travel, leisure and tourism, is a complex visual and textual product of a group
of identities: the photographer/publisher’s, the sender/addresser’s and the re¬
ceiver/addressee’s. The pictorial otherness in the communication process has
two standard roles. The postcard has two sides: image (landscapes, hotels, per¬
sonalities, sightseeing, monuments, etc.) and text. On the one hand, it is “sent”
to the receiver: “I arrived. This is the place. Look where I am!”, and on the
other, the sender comments on it with the textual message: “Look how I feel
here, at the other place! It is a postcard—not photography. Somebody has seen
this place like that. Not I. I bought the postcard and the image expresses my
choice.”' The “equation” that constructs the main thesis contains two known
and two unknown quantities: the reality of the stay and the identity param¬
eters in the context of the visit versus the addressee’s identity in the context
of residence. Known and unknown variables are rarely in conflict with each
other. Most often, they are mutually complementary and create a symbiosis,
which is both multifaceted and logically justified. The postcard is “born” for
the needs of everyday life and very soon after that it already has two equally
important sides, through which not only quick and short messages between the
addresser and the addressee are transferred, but they also contain the codes of
modern identities and realities. Pamela E. Arkarian-Russell studies the holiday¬
postcard—“these bits of social—and philatelic history” as a presentation of “the
similarities as well as the differences in these holidays, both imaginary and cel¬
ebration, are an important part of our social history. These cards document the
what and how of another time. Historians, architects, and costumers are just
a few of the people who turn to postcards to authenticate and date styles and
events” (Arkarian-Russell 2001: viii). The main thesis of this paper is other¬
ness, accepted individually, identity or group of identities and their individual
choice (not “our social history”, as Arkarian-Russell studies). We understand
the postcard first of all as an individual adventure not as a social phenomenon.
Alison Rowley concurs too: “Picture postcards are tantalizing objects, central to
understanding the social history and visual culture ... that have the power not
' The object of the research is only used postcards, i.e. chosen, bought, and sent to more or less a known
receiver. Only in this case do they serve their purpose as a means of individual communication. It is a con¬
necting link between the motif on the face of the postcard and the message on the back of it.