Velvet retro : postsocialist nostalgia and the politics of heroism in Czech popular culture / Veronika Pehe.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pehe, Veronika, author.

Series:

Worlds of memory ; Volume 2

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Popular culture--Political aspects--Czech Republic.

Popular culture.

National characteristics, Czech.

Collective memory--Czech Republic.

Collective memory.

Czech Republic--Politics and government--1993-.

Czech Republic.

Czechoslovakia--History--Velvet Revolution, 1989.

Czechoslovakia.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (190 pages).

Place of Publication:

New York ; Oxford : Berghahn, [2020]

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Figures

Acknowledgements

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

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781789206296

1789206294

9781805394099

1805394096

OCLC:

1133662951