Quest for a Suitable Past: Myth and Memory in Central and Eastern Europe

Published by Central European University Press 2017

Quest for a Suitable Past

Myth and Memory in Central and Eastern Europe

Edited by: Claudia-Florentina Dobre and Cristian Emilian Ghita
Preface by: Lucian Boia

https://doi.org/10.1515/9789633861387

Overview
Contents

About this book

The past may be approached from a variety of directions. A myth provides a sense of direction: it reunites people around certain values and projects and pushes them in one direction or another. The present volume brings together a range of case studies of myth making and myth breaking in east Europe from the nineteenth century to the present day. In particular, it focuses on the complex process through which memories are transformed into myths. This problematic interplay between memory and myth-making is analyzed in conjunction with the role of myths in the political and social life of the region. The essays include cases of forging myths about national pre-history, about the endorsement of nation building by means of historiography, and above all, about communist and post-communist mythologies. The studies shed new light on the creation of local and national identities, as well as the legitimization of ideologies through myth-making. Together, the individual contributions show that myths were often instrumental in the vast projects of social and political mobilization during a period which has witnessed, among others, two world wars and the harsh oppression of the communist regimes.

Author / Editor information

Dobre Claudia-Florentina :

Claudia-Florentina Dobre has a doctorate in history from Laval University, Québec (2007). She is currently the director of Centre for Memory and Identity Studies and an associate researcher at the Regional Center of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (CeReFREA), University of Bucharest. She has published extensively on the memory of Romanian communnism and political persecution, museums, monuments, and memorials, and on everyday life under communism.

Ghita Cristian Emilian :

Cristian Emilian Ghiţă has a PhD in classics and ancient history from the University of Exeter. His interests include Hellenistic studies, Asia Minor, and ancient warfare, Asiatic mythologies, cultural memory. He is the editor-in-chief of MemoScapes: Romanian Journal of Memory and Identity Studies.

Boia Lucian :

Lucian Boia is Professor of History at the University of Bucharest,

Reviews

Lucian Boia:

“Central and Eastern Europe is the part of the continent which has suffered, one might say, from ‘too much history.’ It is enough to look at the inexhaustible mosaic of ethnic or cultural identities or, inevitably, to the communist experiment which has swept through the entire region. Such a tumultuous past has produced historical myths of all kinds, deeply encrusted in the cultural memory of various communities. A group of researchers (from Bulgaria, Croatia, Poland, Romania, and Hungary) has set out to identify them. The yield is rich, and the resulting studies are original and interesting. Undeniably, a remarkable achievement!”

Keith Hitchins:

"A many-sided and multinational exploration of modern myths that contributes immensely to the general definition of myth and elucidates its many values and functions. The geographical range is from Poland to Bulgaria, but these remarkable studies are not, in a sense, regional because they illuminate the nature of a human cultural creation that is universal. The authors show myth-making to be a continuous process, constructive and de-constructive, all the time being practiced by a diversity of individuals and groups—historians, clergy, politicians, writers, elites, peasants, and even whole generations. These myth-makers thus fully reveal the persistence of memory, the ingenuity of the human spirit, and the art of social mobilization."

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Table of Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Foreword Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Contributor Lucian Boia Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Contributor Claudia Dobre Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
An Obscure Object of Desire: The Myth of Alba Iulia and its Social Functions, 1918–1940 Gábor Egry Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
Croatia between the Myths of the Nation-State and of the Common European Past Neven Budak Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
Deconstructing the Myth of the “Wicked German” in Northern and Western Parts of Poland: Local Approaches to Cultural Heritage Izabela Skórzyńska and Anna Wachowiak Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	51
Mythologizing the Biographies of Romanian Underground Communists: The Case Study of Miron Constantinescu Ştefan Bosomitu Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	67
Women in the Communist Party: Debunking a (Post-)Communist Mythology Luciana Jinga Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	85
Avatars of the Social Imaginary: Myths about Romanian Communism after 1989 Claudia Dobre Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	101
Post-Communist Politics of Memory and the New Regime of Historiography: Recent Controversies on the Memory of the “Forty-Five Years of the Communist Yoke” and the “Myth of Batak” Liliana Deyanova Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	119
The Phenomenon of “Parahistory” in Post-Communist Bulgaria: Old Theories and New Myths on Proto-Bulgarians Alexander Nikolov Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
Note on contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	149
Index of names Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151

Language: English
Publisher: Central European University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 162
Keywords: Communism; Central and Eastern Europe; Historiography; Memory politics; Postcommunism

eBook

Published: September 1, 2017
ISBN: 9789633861387