Velvet Retro - Postsocialist Nostalgia Politics of Heroism in Czech Popular Culture

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.

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 den Autor / die Autorin

Veronika Pehe is a researcher at the Institute of Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences, where she leads the Research Group for Historical Transformation Studies.

Zusammenfassung

This innovative study develops the concept of “retro” to describe the nuanced and ironic depiction of the past as seen in Czech popular culture.

Produktdetails

• Autoren: Veronika Pehe, Pehe Veronika
• Verlag: BERGHAHN BOOKS, INC
• Sprache: Englisch
• Produktform: Fester Einband
• Erschienen: 29.02.2020
• EAN: 9781789206289
• ISBN: 978-1-78920-628-9
• Seiten: 190
• Serie: Worlds of Memory
• Themen: Geisteswissenschaften, Kunst, Musik > Geschichte > Allgemeines, Lexika; Sachbuch > Geschichte > Sonstiges; Sozialwissenschaften, Recht,Wirtschaft > Soziologie > Allgemeines, Lexika; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Popular Culture, Cultural Studies, HISTORY / Social History, Social & cultural history, Czech Republic, Social and cultural history, Film Theory & Criticism, Film history, theory or criticism, Cultural and media studies