Pandemic Diaries: The Year in Poland

Abstract

Pandemic DiariesThe Year in Poland Pawel Rodak (bio) Translated by Alessandro Nicola Malusà The year 2020 was exceptional in Poland—for the obvious reasons, but also because of the autobiographical practices of Poles. In the very first weeks of the pandemic, in the spring of 2020, several contests for "pandemic diaries" were announced. They followed a long history of Polish autobiographical writing competitions, which played a significant role in the social and humanistic traditions of the twentieth century. Throughout the twentieth century, well over 1500 diarywriting competitions took place in Poland (Rodak, "Past, Present, and Future"). Among pandemic diary competitions, I will discuss one in greater detail, which was organized by a group of young Polish sociologists and cultural scientists from the University of Warsaw and the Polish Academy of Sciences. The competition was announced on April 7, 2020 with the following statement in Polish, Ukrainian, and English: Życie naszego społeczeństwa w obecnym, szczególnym okresie, wynikającym z pandemii, powinno zostać udokumentowane. Dlatego Instytut Filozofii i Socjologii PAN, Instytut Socjologii UW oraz Instytut Kultury Polskiej UW ogłaszają konkurs na pamiętniki z tego okresu. Zwracamy się do Państwa z prośbą o opisanie, jak wygląda obecnie Wasza codzienność: jak wygląda Wasz dzień, codzienne obowiązki, kontakty z bliskimi i znajomymi, jakie są Wasze rozrywki, jak przebiega Wasza praca zawodowa – o ile pracujecie – i podobne sprawy. A może Wasze życie uległo tylko niewielkiej zmianie? Ważne są także Wasze refleksje i przemyślenia dotyczące otaczającego nas świata w tym niezwykłym czasie. (Pamiętniki Pandemii) Living in our society in this current and specific time, resulting from the pandemic, should be documented. That is why The Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Sociology of the [End Page 126] University of Warsaw and the Institute of Polish Culture of the University of Warsaw are announcing a competition for diaries from this period. We would like to ask you to describe what your daily life is like: your everyday life, your daily duties, contacts with loved ones and friends, your pastimes, how your work is going—if you work—and other such matters. Or maybe your life has changed only slightly? Your reflections and thoughts regarding the world around us at this extraordinary time are also important. ("Pandemic Diaries") The deadline for diary submissions was June 15, 2020, and the contest included cash prizes for the authors of the most comprehensive diaries. In total, 403 diaries were submitted, seventeen of which were hand-written journals sent by post (Łukianow et al.). The competition was judged in August 2020, and some of the diaries were published in the Polish online magazine Mały Format. The magazine asked me to comment on this competition and sent me around thirty diaries as digital files. The shortest was about a dozen pages long; the longest was over one hundred pages. Here are some reflections upon having read them.1 First of all, the very nature of the writing practice must be addressed, namely the electronic format of the diaries. Pandemic diaries show that the computer, most often in the form of a laptop, tablet, or even a smartphone, has become the modern equivalent of a notebook—or our private writing space that we are sometimes reluctant to share. The pandemic compelled many people to use home computers communally, which for some contributors led to conflicts and a loss of a sense of privacy, and to the problem of writing the diary itself. For example, one of them, who writes about childbirth during the pandemic, tells us, "Syn ma zdalne lekcje na moim komputerze, więc chyba skończy się pisanie pamiętnika, bo nie mam kiedy i na czym" [My son has remote lessons on my computer, so I guess that diary-writing will come to an end, as I have nothing to write on and no time to write it] (O. G., "Poród w czasach zarazy").2 The electronic format of the diaries is also consequential because of their hypertextual and intermedial character. They often include links to social networks, photos, and screenshots of...