Of Red Dragons and Evil Spirits. Post-Communist Historiography Between Democratization and New Politics of History
Of Red Dragons and Evil Spirits. Post-Communist Historiography Between Democratization and New Politics of History
Contributor(s): Oto Luthar (Editor)
Subject(s): History, Recent History (1900 till today), Special Historiographies:, Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), Present Times (2010 - today), History of Communism, Post-Communist Transformation
Published by: Central European University Press
Keywords: Post-communism;Eastern Europe;Historiography;1989;
Summary/Abstract: The collection of well researched chapters assesses the uses and misuses of history 25 years after the collapse of Soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe. As opposed to the emphasis on the recovery of memory or revival of national histories that seemed to be the prevelant historiographical approaches of the 1990s, the last decade has seen a particular set of narratives equating Nazism and communism and so providing opportunities to exonerate wartime collaboration, cast the nation as victim even when its government was allied with Germany, and acknowledge the Jewish Holocaust while obfuscating its meaning and significance.In their comparative analysis the authors are also interested in new practices of performing ‘Europeanness.’ Therefore their presentations of Slovak, Hungarian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian and Slovenian post-communist memory politics move beyond the common national myths in order to provide a new insight into transnational interactions and exchanges in Europe in general. The juxtaposition of these politics, the processes in other parts of Europe, the modes of remembering shaped by displacement and the transnational memory practices enable a close encounter with the divergences and assess the potential of the formation of common, European memory practices.
- E-ISBN-13: 978963-386-152-3
- Print-ISBN-13: 978-963-386-151-6
- Page Count: 256
- Publication Year: 2017
- Language: English
On the (In)convertibility of National Memory into European Legitimacy
On the (In)convertibility of National Memory into European Legitimacy
(On the (In)convertibility of National Memory into European Legitimacy)
- Author(s):Daniela Koleva
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), Present Times (2010 - today), History of Communism, Post-Communist Transformation
- Page Range:11-31
- No. of Pages:21
- Keywords:National memory;Bulgaria;post-communist transition;
- Summary/Abstract:The following chapter focuses on the public memory of the recent past (World War II and its aftermath) in Bulgaria. Taking the joke seriously, I start with the constructivist assumption that the messages of the past do not spontaneously emanate from it, but rather are coined in the present to respond to current needs and interests. The past therefore “keeps changing” as a consequence of the politics of history that not only seek to negotiate the narratives about the past but also to legitimize social and political actors and their causes in the present. From this perspective, I will try to track down two simultaneous but diverging tendencies in the current Bulgarian memory constructs: what might be considered (re)nationalization of memory, and its Europeanization.
- Price: 9.45 €
Equalizing Jesus’s, Jewish, and Croat Suffering—Post-Socialist Politics of History in Croatia
Equalizing Jesus’s, Jewish, and Croat Suffering—Post-Socialist Politics of History in Croatia
(Equalizing Jesus’s, Jewish, and Croat Suffering—Post-Socialist Politics of History in Croatia)
- Author(s):Ljiljana Radonić
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), Present Times (2010 - today), Post-Communist Transformation
- Page Range:33-57
- No. of Pages:25
- Keywords:post-communism;Croatia;
- Summary/Abstract:World War II was the founding myth both for socialist Yugoslavia, based on the narrative of the supra-national partisan struggle, and for post-socialist Croatia, due to President Franjo Tuđman’s idea that both partisans and Ustasha had fought for the Croatian cause, albeit in different ways. How did this strong role of politics of history impact professional historiography and vice versa, what influence did the latter have? Does it make sense at all to speak of a Croatian historiography in socialist Yugoslavia—were there fields free of influence from socialist hegemonic narrative? This chapter argues that this is true for the conservative historiography before the 1960s, but also for the two currents that developed in this period: There was a growing tension between distinguished medieval studies and historians like Mirjana Gross, who established contacts with international experts, oriented themselves on new Western methodology, and promoted approaches of the Annales School on the one hand, and nationalist historians whose engagement seemed limited to verbal exchange about contemporary history with their Serbian counterparts on the other hand. This last current, represented by the later Croatian president Franjo Tuđman, became dominant after Croatia’s independence in 1991.
- Price: 11.25 €
Wars of Memory in Post-Communist Romania
Wars of Memory in Post-Communist Romania
(Wars of Memory in Post-Communist Romania)
- Author(s):Michael Shafir
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), Present Times (2010 - today), Post-Communist Transformation
- Page Range:59-86
- No. of Pages:28
- Keywords:Post-communism;Romania;Memory;
- Summary/Abstract:As in many other former communist countries, a “competitive martyrdom” struggle erupted in Romania soon after the collapse of the former regime. By “competitive martyrdom” I understand the implicit or explicit attempt to exonerate the Romanian political community embodied by the state, or segments of that community, from either guilt or responsibility for having participated in World War II as a Nazi ally and from having perpetrated genocidal crimes against the Jews and the Roma. Coined by several scholars in the context of de¬bates around the extent, the limit or the desirability of emulating the alleged postwar denazification in Western Europe, competitive mar¬tyrdom is a complex issue, influenced not only by the immediate communist past and its treatment of the Holocaust in official history, but also, and above all, by socio-psychological factors linked to collective memory and to the social frameworks of the memory of specific groups within society. Furthermore, it entails also an international aspect, for the de-communizing polities strive to demonstrate their appurtenance to the democratic “international regime” and its values, but are obviously at pain when urged to confront collaboration.
- Price: 12.60 €
Reflections on the Principles of the Critical Culture of Memory
Reflections on the Principles of the Critical Culture of Memory
(Reflections on the Principles of the Critical Culture of Memory)
- Author(s):Todor Kuljić
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Recent History (1900 till today), Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), History of Communism
- Page Range:87-114
- No. of Pages:28
- Keywords:memory;Serbia;post-communism;
- Summary/Abstract:The center stage of this chapter is a presentation of the basic elements of the hegemonic ethnocentric culture of memory in Serbia and broader region. In trying to present the process of normalized nationalism, victimization of one’s own nation, and the war of memories the author focuses on three related and closely inter-dependent principles of alternative, critical culture of memory: (1) demonumentalization of the past, (2) functional traumatization of the past, and (3) historical comparison of crimes. The lack of dealing with one’s own nationalism—as opposed to the other’s—is identified as the main problem in the region. Therefore, a distinction must be made between critical and blind patriotism. According to the latter, my nation is always right. It is its imperative to not only hate another nation but also the part of my own that does not hate others. Here, the hegemonic, heroic narratives, and symbolical structures center on the semantics of national sadness rather than on class misery or general human suffering. Every nationalism morphs imperceptibly through blind patriotism into chauvinism and fascism. Therefore, the position that my nation is always the victim should be replaced by the position that we are all victims. It is not the duty of critical history to erase one’s own national past but to critically forget its false glory.
- Price: 12.60 €
The Struggle for Legitimacy
The Struggle for Legitimacy
(The Struggle for Legitimacy)
- Author(s):Miroslav Michela
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), Present Times (2010 - today), History of Communism, Post-Communist Transformation
- Page Range:115-138
- No. of Pages:24
- Keywords:post-communism;Slovakia;historiography;
- Summary/Abstract:Here the author discusses the rise of this polarization of contemporary Slovak historiography, which was institutionalized in the 1990s, and still remains in the academic debates, and also as one of the constitutive elements in the public representations of history. The efforts to enforce a certain canonical interpretation of the past are not just a matter of politics or professionals. Academics often give it legitimacy or even create it, and are a part of the institutional networks involved in the dissemination of knowledge and ideas. Shared representations of the past are not accidentally produced by social groups, but are a consequence of cultural meditation, primarily of textualization and visualization
- Price: 10.80 €
Victims and Traditions
Victims and Traditions
(Victims and Traditions)
- Author(s):Ferenc Laczó
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), Present Times (2010 - today), History of Communism, History of the Holocaust, Post-Communist Transformation
- Page Range:139-158
- No. of Pages:20
- Keywords:historiography;post-communism;Hungary;memory;
- Summary/Abstract:The following chapter explores how the Holocaust of 1944 and the end of the communist revolutionary project in 1989 are constructed in terms of their contemporary relevance in Hungary to thereby discuss some key questions of historical explanation and narrative coherence in post-communist times. My focus will be on major trends, key disagreements, and recent changes in Holocaust remembrance and the meanings assigned to 1989. I shall conceive of Holocaust remembrance as intimately linked to the issue of historical responsibility whereas I shall treat the remembrance of 1989 as a crucial problem of historical orientation that also has a decisive political stake.
- Price: 9.00 €
Instrumentalization of History in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Instrumentalization of History in Bosnia and Herzegovina
(Instrumentalization of History in Bosnia and Herzegovina)
- Author(s):Šaćir Filandra
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), Present Times (2010 - today), History of Communism, Post-Communist Transformation
- Page Range:159-185
- No. of Pages:27
- Price: 12.15 €
Post-Socialist Historiography Between Democratization and New Exclusivist Politics of History
Post-Socialist Historiography Between Democratization and New Exclusivist Politics of History
(Post-Socialist Historiography Between Democratization and New Exclusivist Politics of History)
- Author(s):Oto Luthar
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), Present Times (2010 - today), History of Communism, Post-Communist Transformation
- Page Range:187-207
- No. of Pages:21
- Keywords:post-communism;historiography;
- Summary/Abstract:In the following chapter, the author wants to show that the fear Andrić talked about can from time to time lull us into blindly believing those stories that know nothing about “perhaps” or “anticipation.” Or to put it more precisely, in discussing the straightforwardness of post-socialist revisionist historiography, he shows how hope in the uncensored interpretation of the past that accompanied the “end of communism” gave way to the fear of yet another strand of one-sided politics of history
- Price: 9.45 €
Authors
Authors
(Authors)
- Author(s):Oto Luthar
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Essay|Book Review |Scientific Life
- Page Range:209-210
- No. of Pages:2
- Price: 4.50 €
Bibliography
Bibliography
(Bibliography)
- Author(s):Oto Luthar
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Essay|Book Review |Scientific Life
- Page Range:211-243
- No. of Pages:33
- Price: 4.50 €
Index
Index
(Index)
- Author(s):Oto Luthar
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Essay|Book Review |Scientific Life
- Page Range:245-248
- No. of Pages:4
- Price: 4.50 €