Polish Hontology. Things and people during the years of the transition period

The book of anthropologist Olga Dranda is devoted to the study of the visual everyday life of the Polish Perestroika era. Having taken as a basis the concept of hontology (Hauntology, Haunt - Ghost and Ontology - Ontology), Olga collects signs of the past time, from street fashion to design cassettes from video rental, simultaneously cleansing the memories of her respondents both from nostalgic embellishment and alternations of later experiences, distorting initial images. The book was based on an interview recorded with witnesses of the collapse of the PNR, as well as a rich photo archive, partially reproduced in this publication. Dranda shows a gap filled with fantasies and dreams of Poles. She does not evaluate, does not keep a book of complaints and complaints, does not ironize, although the stories told by her themselves suggest for such a perception. Agnieshka Varka, Culture.pl
Series "New Anthropology" edited by Professor Alexei Yurchak, California University - Berkeley