The author, a professor at Warsaw University's Department of Polish Culture, insists that he is a 'promenader' who strolls about Warsaw. But he is not a typical promenader - his ability to observe never allows him to walk impassively past the graffiti on a wall, or the abandoned wreck of a car; not even the local drunks drinking cheap wine round the corner of the shop escape his notice. The ugly, sad, grey reality that is of no interest to the average passer-by provides Sulima with a pretext for some remarkably interesting essays, in which he describes and interprets the everyday life of the past ten years. This sort of analysis is then able to provide an ideal key to the story of the world around us, and to the story of ourselves.
Sulima admits that as a rule the commonplace, or everyday life, is not beautiful. Yet despite its ugliness, it bears great significance, if one only takes the trouble to decipher it. Making this effort can produce some astonishing results, because the world of the commonplace has a hidden profundity, the realm of images, myths and particular patterns of behaviour.
The commonplace involves not just the world of things (though of course they are the easiest to grasp and describe), but also the world of smells, flavours and noises - the texture and firmness of the tomato we reach for at the market, or the feel of objects and their rustling packaging as they pass through our hands in the shop are seen as elements of our everyday tactile experience. The noises emanating from neighbouring allotments in the Masurian countryside create the soundscape in which we are immersed. The taste that fills our mouths at the thought of homemade pierogi is also a fundamentally significant element of the world of culture. Everyday life is rich: it is composed as much of direct, sensory experiences as of multiple semantic layers.
To my mind, the undeniable value of this book lies in its superb, profound and revelatory description of the commonplace. In effect, the author demonstrates how to conduct a penetrating observation of reality, in that the description of everyday life allows us to grasp our own presence within it. Within the commonplace events of everyday life the force, weight and value of the changes we are taking part in are realised with directness and immediacy. (Anna Niedźwiedź)
Professor Roch Sulima is primarily concerned with the anthropological interpretation of modern cultural phenomena, and heads the Research Group for Modern Culture at Warsaw University.
- Roch Sulima
An Anthropology of Commonplace / Antropologia codzienności
Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellonskiego, Krakow 2000
© Roch Sulima, rights available
144 x 204, 196 pages, paperback
ISBN 83-233-1339-3