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The course focuses on 20th century Hungarian politics and culture from the perspective of today, thus assessing the past in relation to contemporary identity and memory politics. The lectures, presentations, photo-, video- and textual material shall in this sense, look into the interwar period, state socialisms, and current practices respectively. Since there are still considerable Hungarian ethnic minorities in the neighbouring states, the course will also have an additional emphasis on how these overlapping, complementary or conflicting practices were acted out in Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia, as well as in their successor states from the 1920s until today. Again, with a special focus on the residues and implications of identity and memory politics, and their impact today. Poslední úprava: Vykoukal Jiří, doc. PhDr., CSc. (09.02.2022)
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The aim of the seminar is to give the students a basic understanding of the development of Hungarian identity and memory politics throughout the 20th century with a constant emphasis on how previous practices are re-introduced, adapted or denied today. Students are expected at the end to recognise and identify the most relevant elements of identity and memory politics of contemporary Hungary, trace its origins and define their current position according to its development. Poslední úprava: Vykoukal Jiří, doc. PhDr., CSc. (09.02.2022)
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Course assessment is based on A-F scale defined by Dean´s of the Faculty provision 20/2019 (https://fsv.cuni.cz/deans-measure-no-20/2019) obligatory for all courses and lecturers. Read the provision carefully before applying! Presentation 40% Essay (5 norm pages) 40% Attendance 10% Activity in class 10% Poslední úprava: Vykoukal Jiří, doc. PhDr., CSc. (09.02.2022)
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Required GYÁNI, Gábor: A Nation Divided by History and Memory: Hungary in the Twentieth Century and Beyond. Routledge, 2020. GYÁNI, Gábor – Kövér György – Tibor Valuch: Social History of Hungary from the Reform Era to the End of the Twentieth Century. Columbia University Press, 2004. FEHÉRVÁRY, Krisztina: Politics in Color and Concrete. Socialist Materialities and the Middle Class in Hungary. Indiana University Press, 2013. MIKLÓSSY, Katalin – NYYSSÖNENB, Heino: Defining the new polity: constitutional memory in Hungary and beyond. In: Journal of Cotemporary European Studies. 2018, VOL. 26, NO. 3, 322–333.
Optional: LORMAN, Thomas: Counter-Revolutionary Hungary, 1920-1925: István Bethlen and the Politics of Consolidation. Columbia University Press, 2006. JANOS, Andrew C.: The politics of Backwardness in Hungary 1825-1945. Princeton University Press, 1982. LENDVAI, Paul: Orbán – Hungary’s Strongman. Oxford University Press. 2018. BODÓ Béla: Memory Practices: The Red and White Terrors in Hungary as Remembered after 1990. In: East Central Europe. 2017. 44. 186–215. GOUGH, Roger: A Good Comrade – János Kádár, Communism and Hungary. I.B. Tauris. 2006. MARK, James: Remembering Rape: Divided Social Memory and the Red Army in Hungary 1944-1945. In: Past and Present. 2005. Aug. 133–161. Apor, Balázs: The Invisible Shining - The Cult of Mátyás Rákosi in Stalinist Hungary, 1945 – 1956. CEU Press, 2017. 33–68. Poslední úprava: Vykoukal Jiří, doc. PhDr., CSc. (09.02.2022)
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The seminar will rely on text, as much as it will employ video and photo material from the various periods. Poslední úprava: Vykoukal Jiří, doc. PhDr., CSc. (09.02.2022)
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WEEK 1./12. Introduction Course description and assessment WEEK 2./12. Continuities and discontinuities of Hungarian identity and memory politics This lecture will offer a basic overview of the development of Hungarian societies since the 1920s – both as a majority society in Hungary, but also as minority societies in Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia, and their successor states. The focus of the introductory lecture shall be nevertheless, to expose the development of current Hungarian identity and memory politics, but more importantly to put them in a historical perspective, shed some light on their origins, and provide the students with a vantage point for the upcoming semester. Since this course is aimed tom accommodate the needs of Bachelor students, this class will also introduce the basic concepts of memory- and identity politics, communicative- and cultural memory, political and artistic representation, theories of nationalism, the Holocaust, state socialism, etc. Acquiring such insights would enable the students to understand current developments in Hungary, and also to familiarise themselves with the concepts and long-term processes, and their various (re)interpretations, which have their impact today.
WEEK 3./12. Prelude: Late-Empire and Hungarian identity and memory politics until 1918. Summary: The class shall look into the last decades of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in terms of Hungarian identity politics and mnemonic practices. With a special focus on how some practices survived into the interwar era, or how they are reused and redefined today, the class will shed light on the continuities and discontinuities of Hungarian official memory making in terms of architecture, public art, museums, etc. Reading: Signs of Eternity – The Millennial Monuments. (Chapter). In: Varga, Bálint: The Monumental Nation - Magyar Nationalism and Symbolic Politics in Fin-de-siècle Hungary. Berghahn, 2016. Rampley, Matthew: Introduction – Museums and Cultural Politics in the Habsburg World. (Chapter). In: Rampley, Matthew – Prokopovych, Markian – Veszprémi, Nóra (eds.): The Museum Age in Austria-Hungary. The Pennsylvania State University Press. 2021. 1–17. Visuals: Square of the Heroes (Budapest) Vajdahunyad vára Feszty-cyclorama Matthias Rex (Cluj-Napoca) Presentation topic a) Representation(s) of Hungary and Hungarians during the late-Habsburg Empire (institutions) b) Representation(s) of Hungary and Hungarians during the late-Habsburg Empire (monuments)
WEEK 4./12. Interwar-era I Summary: The class will look into the official mnemonic practices of the Horthy-era, how it selected and assessed events, symbols and historic figures to create references for official remembering. Reading: Christian Hungary as History. (Chapter). In: Hanebrink, Paul A.: In Defence of Christian Hungary – Religion, Nationalism and Antisemitism, 1890–1944. Cornell University Press, 2006. Visuals: Regent Admiral Horthy Unveils Rakoczi Memorial (1937) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=medk56qmKjU The Horthy Kingdom of Hungary - Budapest (1936) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCzO8WXMYy0 Switch: Imre Nagy Memorial and Memorial of the National Martyrs (Vértanúk tere, Budapest) Presentation topics a) Origins of Hungarian Christian Nationalism b) How did the Horthy-era look like? Which memories were selected and made publically visible?
WEEK 5./12. Interwar-era II. Neighbouring states Summary: Tha class deals with the decomposition of Hungarian public memoryscapes in Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia during the 1920s and 1930s. Moreover, it will look into competing nationalisms from the Hungarian perspective, and their impact on Hungarian memory and identity politics in these areas today. The focus of the class will be on re-composition, post-imperial trends and hegemony-shifts in public memory practices. It will therefore, look critically also into the altered and altering mnemonic landscapes of Africa, Asia and the Americas from the perspective of the local population and ethnic minorities, as well as their re-interpretations of the landscape. Reading: Transylvania – Regionalism and ethnic strife (Chapter). In: Irina Livezeanu: Cultural Politics in Greater Romania. Cornell University Press, 2000. 129–188. Paintings/Sculptures/Film: Arad Martyrs Memorial (Arad) Millenium Memorial (Divin/Dévény) Presentation topics a) Memory and identity politics through the switch from a majority into an ethnic minority b) Similar post-imperial examples of de-composing and re-composing hegemony (South-Tyrol, Sudetenland, or non-minority post-colonial examples in Asia, Africa…)
WEEK 6./12. Interwar-era III. Summary This class will round off the interwar-period by a selection of videos and critical discussion. Videos: Coronation of King Charles IV.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRsB7QKlmVg Budapest 1930's: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7ZtJH1xNlQ Budapest 1938: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVv3NO2ZDgQ MGM Beautiful Budapest 1938: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP_T-ahdVXY&t=1s Discussion
WEEK 7./12. Worl War II, Holocaust and aftermath: ruptures, dis/continuities Summary: Unlike previous classes, which focused on the memory and identity politics of a period, this class will focus on current Hungarian identity and memory politics in relation to the Second World War and the Holocaust. Reading: Gábor Gyáni: Hungarian Memory of the Holocaust in Hungary. In: Braham, Randolph L. – Kovács, András (ed.): The Holocaust in Hungary – Seventy Years Later. CEU Press. Budapest. 2016. 215–231. Pető Andrea: The Illiberal Memory Politics in Hungary. In: Journal of Genocide Research. 2021.4. Andrea Pető: Death and the Picture. Representation of War Criminals and Construction of Divided Memory about WWII in Hungary. In: Petö, Andrea – Schrijvers, Klaaertje: Faces of Death – Visualising History, 2009. Visuals: House of Terror (Budapest) Shoes on the Danube Bank Memorial for Victims of the German Occupation Čurug memorial of the victims of 1944/45. Presentation topics a) Remembering the Second World War in Hungary (Soviet, Nazi, Fascist iconography, rallies, sculptures…) b) Remembering the Holocaust in Hungary
WEEK 8./12. State socialism I. 1945-1956 Summary: The class shall look into the evolution of the Rákosi-era, with a special focus on its mnemonic practices. It will describe the outlines of socialist realism in terms of Hungarian art, and its role in the developments of the recognisable visibilities of the regime. Moreover, it will also tackle, which references were used to achieve the commemorative practices of the time, but also how they are handled today. Reading: Apor Balázs: National traditions and the leader cult in communist Hungary in the early cold war years. In: Twentieth Century Communism, Volume 1, Number 1, June 2009, pp. 50-71(22) Hajnalka Makra: ‘Us and our progressive traditions’ – leftist literature politics in Hungary and Finland in the 1940s and 1950s. (Chapter) In: Nyyssönen, Heino – Vares, Mari (eds.): Nations and Their Others – Finland and Hungary in Comparison. East-West Books, Helsinki, 2012. Visuals: Stalin statue – Városliget, Stalinist Hungary – Rákosi Mátyás https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJGGJ7y23Qg Soviet heroes memorial / Ronald Reagan statue – Budapest
Presentation topics a) Representations of power in the Rákosi Era (1945-1956) b) Representations of personal cults in the Rákosi Era (1945-1956) WEEK 9./12. State socialism II. 1956-1989 Summary: The class will shed some light on the consolidation of socialist Hungary after the revolution of 1956. It will look into the identity politics from the perspective of consumer culture, and memory politics from the perspective of architecture and the arts. Reading: Fehérváry Krisztina: Socialist Realism in the Socialist City. (Chapter) In: Fehérváry Krisztina: Politics in Color and Concrete. Indiana University Press, 2013. Horváth, Sándor: Myths. (Chapter) In: Horváth, Sándor: Stalinism Reloaded – Everyday Life in Stalin-City, Hungary. Indiana University Press, 2017. Nyyssönen, Heino: The world according to János Kádár. (Chapter) In: Nyyssönen, Heino – Vares, Mari (eds.): Nations and Their Others – Finland and Hungary in Comparison. East-West Books, Helsinki, 2012. Visuals: Budapest 1983 archive footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpF3gFGHAEA Interview with Janos Kadar, May 1st 1964. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWeiSmDhHCM Presentation topics a) Identity and remembering in the Kádár era (1956-1989) b) Representations of personal cults in the Kádár Era (1956-1989)
WEEK 10./12.
State socialism III. Summary This class will round off the state socialist period by a selection of videos and critical discussion.
Videos: Young Hungarians: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5lhNnIU-YQ Regime change: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e49w5fTit7o 1956: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqcnlfC-rv8 Discussion
WEEK 11./12.
Hungary Today I. Summary: The class shall look into how all the previous periods and practices converge into memory- and identity politics of today, but also how they re-interpret, complement and erase elements of the past. Reading: TURAI, Hedvig: Past Unmastered – Hot and Cold Memory in Hungary. In: Third Text, Vol. 23, Issue 1, January, 2009, 97–106.
SZEMERE Anna: The Velvet Prison in Hindsight: Artistic Discourse in Hungary in the 1990s. In: TODOROVA, Maria – GILLE, Zsuzsa: Post-Communist Nostalgia. Berghahn Books, 2010. NADKARNI Maya: “But it’s ours”: Nostalgia and the Politics of Authenticity in Post-Socialist Hungary. In: TODOROVA, Maria – GILLE, Zsuzsa: Post-Communist Nostalgia. Berghahn Books, 2010.
Paintings/Sculptures/Film: Memento Park, Castle Quarter - Hauszmann Programme Presentation topics a) How and why was the Memento Park in Hungary established? b) Which elements of the past were re-incorporated and adapted into Hungarian post-socialist memoryscapes?
WEEK 12./12. Hungary Today II. Summary: The class will look into how the mnemonic practices of the Orbán era utilise the past, how they shape the memoryscapes of the past but also how they redefine the social landscape of Hungarians. It exposes the most current events and references of remembering and collective identification.
Reading: Andrea Pető: Revisionist histories, ‘future memories’: far-right memorialization practices in Hungary. In: European Politics and Society. 2017. 1. 41–51. Domonkos Sik: Memory transmission and political socialization in post-socialist Hungary. In: The Sociological Review. 2015. 63. S2. 53–71
Paintings/Sculptures/Film: August 20th parade. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE54GsgP8p8 Presentation topics a) Official remembering in Hungary since 2010 – differences from previous periods b) Recognisability of the Orbán-regime in relation to other EU member states Poslední úprava: Vykoukal Jiří, doc. PhDr., CSc. (09.02.2022)
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