Remembering communism : private and public recollections of lived experience in Southeast Europe / edited by Maria Todorova, Augusta Dimou, and Stefan Troebst.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Todorova, Marii︠a︡ Nikolaeva, Author.

Contributor:

Todorova, Maria, editor.

Dimou, Augusta, editor.

Troebst, Stefan, editor.

Series:

Leipzig studies on the history and culture of East-Central Europe ; Volume 1.

Leipzig Studies on the History and Culture of East-Central Europe ; Volume 1

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Communism--Social aspects--Europe, Eastern--History.

Communism.

Post-communism--Europe, Eastern.

Post-communism.

Collective memory--Europe, Eastern.

Collective memory.

Communism--Social aspects--Bulgaria--History.

Collective memory--Bulgaria.

Communism--Social aspects--Romania--History.

Collective memory--Romania.

Europe, Eastern--Social conditions--1989-.

Europe, Eastern.

Bulgaria--Social conditions--1989-.

Bulgaria.

Romania--Social conditions--1989-.

Romania.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (640 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Budapest, Hungary ; New York, New York : Central European University Press, 2014.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"The volume examines the formation and transformation of the memory of communism in the post-communist period. The majority of the articles focus on memory practices in the post-Stalinist era in Bulgaria and Romania, with occasional references to the cases of Poland and the GDR. Based on an interdisciplinary approach, including history, anthropology, cultural studies and sociology, the volume, examines the mechanisms and processes that influence, determine and mint the private and public memory of communism in the post-1989 era. Common denominator to all essays is the emphasis on the process of remembering in the present, and the modalities by means of which the present perspective shapes processes of remembering, including practices of commemoration and representation of the past. As a result, the analyses point at the sociopolitical factors and societal processes that help construct, transform, stabilize and finally canonize past memory. Due to its interdisciplinary character and the wide range of methodological and theoretical approaches presented, the volume offers a broad and varied kaleidoscope of memorial practices in a variety of milieus of post-communist societies, from school to the internet. The volume deals with eight major thematic blocks revisiting specific practices in communism such as popular culture and everyday life, childhood, labor, the secret police, the perception of 'the system' and others. The analyses highlight occasionally similarities and differences between the two principal case studies, resulting in the end effect in the observation of a significant divergence in the memory of communism between the two neighboring countries"--Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Cover ; Series title page ; Title page ; Copyright page ; Contents; List of figures; Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction: Similar Trajectories, Different Memories; PART I. THE STATE OF THE ART OF EASTERN EUROPEAN REMEMBRANCE; 2. Experts with a Cause: A Future for GDR History beyond Memory Governance and Ostalgie in Unified Germany; 3. The Canon of Remembering Romanian Communism: From Autobiographical Recollections to Collective Representations; 4. How Is Communism Remembered in Bulgaria? Research, Literature, Projects; 5. The Memory of Communism in Poland

6. Remembering Dictatorship: Eastern and Southern Europe Compared PART II. THINKING THROUGH THINGS: POPULAR CULTURE AND THE EVERYDAY; 7. Communism Reloaded; 8. Daily Life and Constraints in Communist Romania in the Late 1980's: From the Semiotics of Food to the Semiotics of Power; 9. "Forbidden Images"? Visual Memories of Romanian Communism Before and After 1989; 10. Remembering the Private Display of Decorative Things under Communism; PART III. MEMORIES OF SOCIALIST CHILDHOOD; 11. "Loan Memory": Communism and the Youngest Generation

12. Talking Memories of the Socialist Age: School, Childhood, Regime13. Within (and Without) the "Stem Cell" of Socialist Society; PART IV. WHAT WAS SOCIALIST LABOR?; 14. Remembering Communism: Field Studies in Pernik, 1960-1964; 15. "Remembering the Old City, Building a New One": The Plural Memories of a Multiethnic City; 16. Workers in the Workers' State: Industrialization, Labor, and Everyday Life in the Industrial City of Rovinari; 17. "We Build for Our Country!" Visual Memories about the Brigadier Movement; PART V. THE UNFADING PROBLEM OF THE SECRET POLICE

18. How Post-1989 Bulgarian Society Perceives the Role of the State Security Service 19. The Afterlife of the Securitate: On Moral Correctness in Postcommunist Romania; 20. Daily Life And Surveillance in the 1970's and 1980's; PART VI. THE "CULTURAL FRONT" THEN AND NOW; 21. From Memory to Canon: How Do Bulgarian Historians Remember Communism?; 22. Theater Artists and the Bulgarian Authorities in the 1960's: Memories of Conflicts, Conflict of Memories; 23. Bulgarian Intellectuals Remember Communist Culture

24. "By Their Memoirs You Shall Know Them": Ivan and Petko Venedikov about Themselves and about Communism 25. Cum Ira et Studio: Visualizing the Recent Past; PART VII. REMEMBERING EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS AND THE "SYSTEM"; 26. The Revolution of 1989 and the Rashomon Effect: Recollections of the Collapse of Communism in Romania; 27. Remembrance of Communism on the Former Day of Socialist Victory: The 9th of September in Ritual Ceremonies of Post-1989 Bulgaria; 28. Remembering the "Revival Process" in Post-1989 Bulgaria; 29. Websites of Memory: In Search of the Forgotten Past; List of Contributors

Index

Notes:

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-003-72163-X

963-386-032-6

9781003721635

OCLC:

897176525