Of red dragons and evil spirits : post-communist historiography between democratization and the new politics of history / edited by Oto Luthar.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Luthar, Oto, editor.

Contributor:

Luthar, Oto, editor, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Historiography--Europe, Eastern.

Historiography.

Post-communism--Europe, Eastern--Historiography.

Post-communism.

Europe, Eastern--History--1989---Historiography.

Europe, Eastern.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (258 pages)

Manufacture:

Baltimore, Md. : Project MUSE, 2017

Place of Publication:

New York : Central European University Press, 2017.

Summary:

The collection of well-researched essays assesses the uses and misuses of history 25 years after the collapse of Soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe. As opposed to the revival of national histories that seemed to be the prevailing historiographical approach of the 1990s, the last decade has seen a particular set of narratives equating Nazism and Communism. This provides opportunities to exonerate wartime collaboration, casting the nation as victim even when its government was allied with Germany. While the Jewish Holocaust is acknowledged, its meaning and significance are obfuscated. In their comparative analysis the authors are also interested in new practices of ‘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 enable a close encounter with the divergences and assess the potential of the formation of common, European memory practices.

Contents:

Introduction: red dragon and the evil spirits / Oto Luthar

On the (in)convertibility of national memory into European legitimacy: the Bulgarian case / Daniela Koleva

Equalizing Jesus's, Jewish and Croat suffering: post-Socialist politics of history in Croatia / Ljiljana Radonic

Wars of memory in post-Communist Romania / Michael Shafir

Reflections on the principles of the critical culture of memory / Todor Kuljic

The struggle for legitimacy: constructing the national history of Slovakia after 1989 / Miroslav Michela

Victims and traditions: narratives of Hungarian national history after the age of extremes / Ferenc Laczó

Instrumentalization of history in Bosnia and Herzegovina / Sacir Filandra

Post-Socialist historiography between democratization and new exclusivist politics of history / Oto Luthar.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-003-72108-7

963-386-152-7

9781003721086

OCLC:

983786567