The article discusses selected quotations, catchphrases, and slogans belonging to a broadly defined culture and their role in presenting the wider historical, political, and social context. The description concerns an elective course that is part of a Polish programme, titled “Język Polski a kultura współczesna” (The Polish language and modern culture). The linguistic material was used to illustrate watershed moments in the history of Poland between 1944 and 1989. The goal of the course is to teach the participants about culture and language in a more accessible way through an interdisciplinary approach which combines issues related to general history, the history of culture (motion pictures, popular music, fashion), literature, and stylistics and phraseology. The taxonomy of the expressions discussed is based on Grażyna Zarzycka’s studies on the function of winged words in teaching Polish.
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