Stan wojenny i dyskurs nowego porządku na łamach magazynów kobiecych w Polsce początku lat 80. XX wieku

Abstract

This paper seeks to explore how the martial law and the politics of the ‚new order’ were pictured in Polish popular women’s magazines at the beginning of the 1980s. After martial law was imposed on 13 December 1981, all but two press titles were suspended. Most of them were reinstated in the first half of 1982, but their editors were obliged to observe the so-called „socialist values” and to represent the policy of the ruling party. Therefore, in the women’s press, officially interested in the problems of family, everyday life and culture, texts justifying the decision to impose martial law and explaining the new political line began to appear. They represented a variety of journalistic genres, from journalism to correspondence with readers. A particularly interesting example are (to a large extent) signed letters to the editorial office. The metaphors of family breakdown, marital infidelity and, on the other hand, internal peace, order and coping served to describe the political reality. In my paper I will analyze language strategies used for political propaganda in the context of the shifts in party-state policies towards women and family in the early 1980s.