'It is as if the 80s had never ended': Punk, Transition and Memory in (Post-)Communist Hungary

• In Event: Moral Inversion: Value Change, Memory and Culture After Communism, 1990 Onwards

Abstract

Taking its cue from the recent revival of punk music in Hungary, the paper aims to discuss the legacies of the late socialist punk/underground scene, with a particular emphasis on the period of post-communist transition. The paper will rely primarily on personal recollections, interviews and memories of the punk scene to address how punks perceived the period of regime change, and how the transition shaped their subcultural identity, as well as their broader perceptions of politics, norms and social values. The paper will also aim to explore how the “inherited reflexes” of the late-socialist subcultural scene came to shape the moral positions of punks in the decades since the collapse of the communist regime in Hungary.

Author

• Balazs Apor, Trinity College Dublin (Ireland)