Course description

The course encompasses a variety of themes concerning the reconstruction of social identities in
Central Europe after the fall of communism. The particular interconnected topics to be addressed in
this course are: the political reconstruction of memories and identities in the conditions of
cultural revolutions, the establishment of post-socialist hegemony in relation to cultural
practices of nationalism, and the challenge of re-emerging forms of ethnic conflict and solidarity
in the form of mythic and utopian imaginary communities. The basic approach of the course is to
demonstrate various cultural patterns of continuity and change by means of theoretically framed
case studies that compare pre-communist, communist and post-communist phenomena.


Course requirements

Presentation, written examination (The exam will last 45 minutes. Students will answer questions
based on course readings)


Final paper assignment


Time and location

The class will take place on Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 11.40 a.m. at the Faculty of Social Studies,
room U33.



Teacher responsible for the course


Csaba Szaló

Office: Faculty of Social Studies, Joštova 10,  Department of Sociology, room 367

Office Hours: Wednesday 14.30 – 16.00

e-mail: szalo@fss.muni.cz


Course outline

24.02. Introduction: The experience of total wars and world revolutions – Hobsbawm, Eric. 1996. Age
of Extremes. London: Vintage. pp. 21-53.

03.03. Modernity, trust and identity – Berezin, Mabel. 1997. Making the Fascist Self. Ithaca:
Cornell University Press. pp. 11-38.

10.03. Recurrent modernization: industrial, political and cultural revolutions – Read, Christopher.
ed. 2003. The Stalin Years. London: Palgrave. pp. 23-101

17.03. The cultural power of naming and political struggle – Bourdieu, Pierre. 1992. Language and
Symbolic Power. Cambridge: Polity Press). pp. 220-251.

24.03. The establishment of socialist and post-socialist cultural hegemony - Verdery, Katherine.
1996. What Was Socialism and What Comes Next. Princeton: Princeton University Press. pp.19 -57

14.04. Post-socialist nationalism and anti-feminism. - Verdery, Katherine. 1996. What Was Socialism
and What Comes Next. Princeton: Princeton University Press. pp. 61-103.

21.04. Cultural trauma and identity formation - Alexander, Jeffrey. C. 2004. “Toward a theory of
cultural trauma.” Pp. 1–30 in: Cultural Trauma and Collective Identity. Berkeley: University of
California Press.

28.04. Cultural Trauma, Heroes and Victims - Giesen, Bernhard. 2004. Triumph and Trauma. Boulder
Colo.: Paradigm Publishers. pp. 15-74.

05.05. The Holocaust and Cultural Trauma -  Alexander, Jeffrey. C. 2004. “On the social
construction of moral universals: The ‘Holocaust’ from war crime to trauma drama.” Pp.196-263 in:
Cultural Trauma and Collective Identity. Berkeley: University of California Press.

12.05. National minorities and the challenge of re-emerging forms of conflict and solidarity –
Brubaker, Rogers. 1996. Nationalism Reframed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 13-22,
55-76.

19.05. The sense of historical injustice and the symbolic power of resentment – Brubaker, Rogers.
1996. Nationalism Reframed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 79-147.