Transnationalism and (Anti) Communism in Museum Practice

                The case study of the Emerging Bratislava Museum

                                    Abstract

   Having the experience  of living  in the  different social  regime have  a
   massive influence  on  the memory  of  the  people. The  polarity  of  the
   memories and  the  demarcation  lines  are  starting  to  occur  when  the
   remembering the past. With the  new socio-political system the new  elites
   are coming on the stage to construct new discources. One of them which  is
   introduced into the public spheres is  the anti-communism. For the use  of
   the paper I work with the anti-communism, not only as the discourse but as
   the ideology  which is  probubly  carried by  the  people engaged  in  the
   realization of the museum of communism.

   In the communism  same as  anti-communism can  be seen  two tendencies  of
   looking    at    the    national    perspective.    One    is     strictly
   nationalist-emphosizing   the   national    context   of   communism    or
   anti-communism. The second  is the transnational  perspective focusing  on
   the interest of the  class in the communist  ideology, or the interest  of
   the people as defined by the anti-communism.

   In the  essay I  would like  to map  the ground  of the  national and  the
   transnational tendencies of the (anti) communism as the memory material in
   the Central Europe (more concretly the Visegrad region). This is the  soil
   where the roots of  the museum practices are  origining. In Bratislava  is
   emerging the Museum of the Communism. The museum has not yet been builded,
   though the  representants of  the initive  are having  the very  practical
   visions and are gaining the political support.

   On the  theorethical basis  I would  like to  analyse the  (trans)national
   perspective in the ideologies in the region, whereas in “practical” part I
   woul like to use the theories  to analyze the situation with one  concrete
   museum practice. Though the  museum is not there  standing and having  the
   visitors, I consider it of worth to study the mental plans of the  actors.
   I intend to  use the knowledge  I can  gain from the  interviews with  the
   people responsible for the realization of the museum project.

   The net of the theories I would like to use are the concepts connected  to
   the museum practice (MacDonald) , memory studies connected to the issue of
   the communism (Rousso, Breckner et coll.) and the transnationalism studies
   (Levitt, Khagram, Jaworski). Naturally, I will employ the identity  theory
   to analyze the construction of  the national identities in the  narratives
   which are used by the representants of the museum.

Research question

   Main research question:

   What kind of narratives  are used to  construct national or  transnational
   identity in the museum practices  reflecting the ideology of communism  or
   anticommunism?

   Related reasearch questions: How the transnational dimension of ideologies
   of communism and anticommunism construct the identity of the people?  What
   are the memories connected to the communism  that are to be marked in  the
   museum? How the anticommunism is articulated in the museal practice?

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