Truth versus “the Postwar Truth”: Jerzy Peterkiewicz against the Idealization of the Communist Ideology in Postwar Great Britain
Katarzyna CIEPLIŃSKA
Department of Applied Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, ul. Kurta Obitza 1, 10-725 Olsztyn, Poland , Polandhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-4011-1429
Abstract
The aim of the article is to present the idea of truth, the postwar post-truth, and manipulation in the perception of the communist ideology as interpreted by some social movements in postwar Britain in contrast to the experience of the Polish émigrés. The problem is discussed in relation to two novels by Jerzy Peterkiewicz (Future to Let of 1958 and Green Flows the Bile of 1969), a Polish émigré poet, novelist, and translator. Peterkiewicz juxtaposes the Polish perspective on communism, based on the actual experience of the Stalinist terror persecutions, with the view, popular in postwar Britain, that communism be accepted as a philosophical idea incorporating the lofty ideals of equality, sharing, and working for the common good. Peterkiewicz depicts “playing with ideology” as a dangerous socio-political phenomenon. In his view, blinding people with slogans may lead to a distortion of the meaning of words and to deviation from the actual ideals, which naturally gives way to the rise of a totalitarian system, where manipulation between truth and variously conceived post-truth results in the destruction of a democratic society.
Keywords:
Jerzy Pietrkiewicz (Peterkiewicz), postwar Britain, post-truth, communismDepartment of Applied Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, ul. Kurta Obitza 1, 10-725 Olsztyn, Poland https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4011-1429
