Mýtus svobody: čtyři roky výzkumu Slavností svobody v Plzni
The Myth of Freedom: Four Years of Research of Liberation Festival in Pilsen

Summary/Abstract: This text focuses on the issue of the instrumental politicization of history, which is illustrated by the political contexts of the Liberation Festival in Pilsen. The goal of the text is to present the ways in which the (re)production of the myth of freedom takes place over the course of the festival’s celebrations and present the forms that the narrative of this myth assumes. The text is a contribution to the broader debate on the political significance of public events relating to the commemoration of the end of the Second World War in all of Central Europe. In the text, we will show that an official narrative of the myth of freedom exists. Over the course of the celebrations, this myth is (re)produced by local, regional, and national political representatives. In many cases, the official narrative is disrupted by competing narratives, which attempt to redefine or at least weaken the dominant interpretation of the myth of freedom and connected notions of liberation and occupation both in the context of the period of the Second World War and of contemporary politics.We also point out the ways in which the dramaturgical and discursive defense of this dominant narrative takes place on the part of official representatives.

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