THE TOTEMIC FUNCTION OF THE CONTEMPORARY POLISH POST-NOBLE MILIEU

Following the Essex School’s discourse theory’s insights on the failed status of both subject and social order this paper analyses the role of noble legacy-oriented fantasies in totemic status positioning in contemporary Poland. Secondly, this study is concerned with the role of totemic effervescence in the constitution and maintaining the collective identity coherence of Polish aristocratic milieu. Here application of the psychoanalytic approach is particularly handy in demonstrating that “pure” performativity is not sufficient to explain social ontology consistence of this group. It should be rather supplemented by the affective component produced in social rituals that provide a substantial ground for their collective identity building strategies.