"Pijak (...) kubek w kubek, jak świnia". Przemiany krytycznego dyskursu wobec pijaństwa i alkoholu na ziemiach polskich

Abstract

“A drunkard [...], truly like a swine.” Transformations in the critical discourse about drunkenness and alcohol in Poland When analysing drinking habits in Poland, we can distinguish several important stages in the evolution of the critical discourse concerning both alcohol as an intoxicating substance and intoxication itself. The longest-standing narrative is dominated by humoral dietetics, in which alcohol — depending on in what form, quantity and by whom it was consumed and why — could be an essential element of diet or be considered to be a harmful substance. Thus we are dealing here with an individualisation of drunkenness, which in some cases could be viewed as indecent and on other — as a necessity and social norm. The discourse was shaken in the early eighteenth century with the emergence of the category of good taste and shift from quantitative to qualitative consumption. These processes were accompanied by a change in the perception of the causes of drinking, in the relationship between the human being and the substance. The author of the article demonstrates how as early as in the eighteenth century specific alcoholic beverages began to be stigmatised in Poland and how in these circumstances stigmatisation of drunkards functioned, as their moral decline and brutalisation is reflected in the comparison between a drunkard and a swine.