Velvet Retro

Postsocialist Nostalgia and the Politics of Heroism in Czech Popular Culture
1. Auflage 2020
ISBN: 978-1-78920-628-9
Verlag: Berghahn Books

Buch, Englisch, Band 2, 190 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 434 g

Reihe: Worlds of Memory

Scholars of state socialism have frequently invoked “nostalgia” to identify an uncritical longing for the utopian ambitions and lived experience of the former Eastern Bloc. However, this concept seems insufficient to describe memory cultures in the Czech Republic and other contexts in which a “retro” fascination with the past has proven compatible with a steadfast critique of the state socialist era. This innovative study locates a distinctively retro aesthetic in Czech literature, film, and other cultural forms, enriching our understanding of not only the nation’s memory culture, but also the ways in which popular culture can structure collective memory.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Pehe, Veronika

Fachgebiete

• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften Populärkultur
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Europäische Länder
• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Filmwissenschaft, Fernsehen, Radio Filmgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Illustrations

Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations

Introduction: Returning to the Past

Chapter 1. Painting the Past Black and White: Czech Anticommunism after 1989

Chapter 2. The Past as Comedy: Representing Socialism in the 1990s

Chapter 3. The Late 1990s: Contesting the Past through Popular Culture

Chapter 4. Petty Heroism: Nostalgia for Resistance

Chapter 5. The Politics and Aesthetics of Retro

Chapter 6. Changing Memory Landscapes in the 2000s

Conclusion: Socialism Remembered

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Pehe, Veronika
Veronika Pehe is a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow at the Institute of Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

Veronika Pehe is a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow at the Institute of Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences.