Reconstructing Black-White-Grey: Cultural Memory and the Image of Czech Dissent

• In Event: Past-Present Rewind: Remembering History in Central and Eastern European Popular Culture

Abstract

Given the conflicting position of dissidents within a society, their image varies according to different social groups: Sympathetic supporters may ascribe traits of heroism to dissidents, while the authorities generally dismiss them as renegade rebels. Attitudes towards dissidents also change as societies change and new values replace old ones: Under new social conditions, dissent loses its relevance and dissidents become figures of the past. Although heroisation aims at fixation in cultural memory, it is subject to social transformation, as can be seen in the case of dissident 'heroes'. In recent Czech history after 1989, dissidents – most prominently, of course, Václav Havel – played an important role during the transformation period but are gradually becoming heroes of the past in cultural memory. In popular media productions with dissidents as protagonists (Pražské orgie, a film adaptation of the novel by Philipp Roth [CZ/USA/SK 2019], three volumes of the TV series České století [CZ 2013/14], Havel [CZ 2020]), various aspects influence the production and reception. As far as contemporary audiences are concerned, the products are designed in such a way as to combine the political with the private. On the one hand, this combination is a proven feature of historical genres in literature. On the other hand, the literary production of the dissident circle (Vaculík, Havel, Kohout, Broučková, Brabcová...) often depicted the complicated milieu of dissent. The paper will focus on the peculiarities of popular history in contemporary Czech culture.

Author

• Peter Deutschmann, U of Salzburg (Austria)