Post-War and Post-Communist Poland and European Knightly Myths of Loyalty and Betrayal: Pasikowski’s Acquis Mythologique Communautaire

Abstract

Focusing on the highly controversial film Pigs by Wladyslaw Pasikowski (1992), in this chapter Piotr Toczyski explores the ambiguous code of chivalry of some ex-KGB men portrayed in the film. Toczyski conceptualizes the Europeanization of loyalty and other moral values in terms of the “acquis mythologique communautaire.” This is formed analogously to pan-European processes of lawmaking (the “acquis communautaire”) and history-writing (resulting in “acquis historique communautaire”). Toczyski investigates how common values are negotiated, via debate in the artistic and journalistic media, as prerequisites for the European integration of post-communist societies. During Poland’s transition from communism in 1989, myths such as Arthurianism re-emerged to become a mode of debating about who won the moral argument.