Lecture format: on site
Room: 2R-EG-07 (lecture hall of the Institute for Eastern European History).
Street address: Spitalgasse 2, Campus of the University of Vienna, Hof 3.
Although they may seem far apart, the social processes of upward mobility and partner selection are in fact very much intertwined. Whereas endogamy is a well-known method of safeguarding the borders of class, marrying into a family of higher social status has always been recognized as an efficient tactic of social climbing for both men and women. Drawing on various sources – from sociological research through diaries to popular culture – this seminar will propose a nuanced analysis of the connection between upward mobility and cross-class relationships in the Polish People's Republic. From an ideological standpoint, the idea of a mésalliance – an inter-class relationship judged as inappropriate – should cease to exist in socialist societies, characterized by a collaboration of the three main classes (intelligentsia, peasantry, workers) and gradually diminishing class hierarchies. As sociological literature from the era proves, the first two decades of socialism were indeed a time of rising exogamy, often undertaken by people experiencing upward mobility. The freeing of love from class constraints was also a common theme of socialist realist film and literature. Simultaneously, as sources such as diaries and memoirs show, class difference in relationships was oftentimes the source of extremely negative feelings and difficulties, sometimes the last reminder of one's "inferior" class status. In post-socialist realist culture the classical melodramatic trope of doomed cross-class relationships also returns to film and literature and can be read as a form of critique of the system's failed promises of egalitarianism.
Magda Szcześniak is Assistant Professor in the Institute of Polish Culture, University of Warsaw and the Institute's Deputy Director for Academic Affairs. Author of “Normy widzialności. Tożsamość w czasach transformacji” (Norms of Visibility. Identity in Times of Transition, 2016) and “Poruszeni. Awans i emocje w socjalistycznej Polsce” (Feeling Moved. Upward Mobility and Emotions in Socialist Poland, 2023), as well as articles published in multiple journals, including New Literary History, Oxford Art Journal, Journal of Visual Culture. Co-editor (with Francis Guerin) of the volume Visual Culture in Postindustrial Europe (2024). Two-time Fulbright scholar (2010/2011, 2019/2020). She has also received stipends from the Polish National Science Centre and the Ministry of Higher Education and Science.
