Between Utopia and Disillusionment

Between Utopia and Disillusionment PDF Author: Henri Vogt
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 9781571818959
Category : Czech Republic
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
Scholarly interpretations of the collapse of communism and developments thereafter have tended to be primarily concerned with people's need to rid themselves of the communist system, of their past. The expectations, dreams, and hopes that ordinary Eastern Europeans had when they took to the streets in 1989, and have had ever since, have therefore been overlooked - and our understanding of the changes in post-communist Europe has remained incomplete. Focusing primarily on five key areas, such as the heritage of 1989 revolutions, ambivalence, disillusionment, individualism, and collective identities, this book explores the expectations and goals that ordinary Eastern Europeans had during the 1989 revolutions and the decade thereafter, and also the problems and disappointments they encountered in the course of the transformation. The analysis is based on extensive interviews with university students and young intellectuals in the Czech Republic, Eastern Germany and Estonia in the 1990s, which in themselves have considerable value as historical documents.

Between Utopia and Disillusionment

Between Utopia and Disillusionment PDF Author: Henri Vogt
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 9781571818959
Category : Czech Republic
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
Scholarly interpretations of the collapse of communism and developments thereafter have tended to be primarily concerned with people's need to rid themselves of the communist system, of their past. The expectations, dreams, and hopes that ordinary Eastern Europeans had when they took to the streets in 1989, and have had ever since, have therefore been overlooked - and our understanding of the changes in post-communist Europe has remained incomplete. Focusing primarily on five key areas, such as the heritage of 1989 revolutions, ambivalence, disillusionment, individualism, and collective identities, this book explores the expectations and goals that ordinary Eastern Europeans had during the 1989 revolutions and the decade thereafter, and also the problems and disappointments they encountered in the course of the transformation. The analysis is based on extensive interviews with university students and young intellectuals in the Czech Republic, Eastern Germany and Estonia in the 1990s, which in themselves have considerable value as historical documents.

Between Utopia and Disillusionment

Between Utopia and Disillusionment PDF Author: Henri Vogt
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 180073512X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Scholarly interpretations of the collapse of communism and developments thereafter have tended to be primarily concerned with people’s need to rid themselves of the communist system, of their past. The expectations, dreams, and hopes that ordinary Eastern Europeans had when they took to the streets in 1989, and have had ever since, have therefore been overlooked – and our understanding of the changes in post-communist Europe has remained incomplete. Focusing primarily on five key areas, such as the heritage of 1989 revolutions, ambivalence, disillusionment, individualism, and collective identities, this book explores the expectations and goals that ordinary Eastern Europeans had during the 1989 revolutions and the decade thereafter, and also the problems and disappointments they encountered in the course of the transformation. The analysis is based on extensive interviews with university students and young intellectuals in the Czech Republic, Eastern Germany and Estonia in the 1990s, which in themselves have considerable value as historical documents.

History and Utopian Disillusion

History and Utopian Disillusion PDF Author: Jun Young Lee
Publisher: Peter Lang
ISBN: 9780820486420
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
Canonical but controversial works of radical modernism, John Dos Passos' novels continue to intrigue readers and challenge literary critics with their unique styles and provocative messages. This book offers an insightful and refreshing perspective on his fictional world, exploring the historical vision and utopian aspirations of his early novels in light of their dialectical politics in narrating modern American society. History and Utopian Disillusion convincingly shows that Dos Passos' epic-scale project is a radical hymn of faith dialectically inspiring the utopian resolution of American history by presenting entropic despair and disillusionment.

Eastern Europe Unmapped

Eastern Europe Unmapped PDF Author: Irene Kacandes
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 178533686X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
Arguably more than any other region, the area known as Eastern Europe has been defined by its location on the map. Yet its inhabitants, from statesmen to literati and from cultural-economic elites to the poorest emigrants, have consistently forged or fathomed links to distant lands, populations, and intellectual traditions. Through a series of inventive cultural and historical explorations, Eastern Europe Unmapped dispenses with scholars’ long-time preoccupation with national and regional borders, instead raising provocative questions about the area’s non-contiguous—and frequently global or extraterritorial—entanglements.

Historical Concepts Between Eastern and Western Europe

Historical Concepts Between Eastern and Western Europe PDF Author: Manfred Hildermeier
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 9781845452735
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 136

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Book Description
More than a decade after the breakdown of the Soviet Empire and the reunification of Europe, historiographies and historical concepts still stood very much apart. This book talks about how there were no common efforts for joint interpretations and no attempts to reach a common understanding of central notions and concepts.

Samizdat, Tamizdat, and Beyond

Samizdat, Tamizdat, and Beyond PDF Author: Friederike Kind-Kovács
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 0857455869
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
In many ways what is identified today as “cultural globalization” in Eastern Europe has its roots in the Cold War phenomena of samizdat (“do-it-yourself” underground publishing) and tamizdat (publishing abroad). This volume offers a new understanding of how information flowed between East and West during the Cold War, as well as the much broader circulation of cultural products instigated and sustained by these practices. By expanding the definitions of samizdat and tamizdat from explicitly political print publications to include other forms and genres, this volume investigates the wider cultural sphere of alternative and semi-official texts, broadcast media, reproductions of visual art and music, and, in the post-1989 period, new media. The underground circulation of uncensored texts in the Cold War era serves as a useful foundation for comparison when looking at current examples of censorship, independent media, and the use of new media in countries like China, Iran, and the former Yugoslavia.

Ingeborg Bachmann's Utopia and Disillusionment

Ingeborg Bachmann's Utopia and Disillusionment PDF Author: Leena Eilittä
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Utopias in literature
Languages : de
Pages : 182

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Book Description
In this study Leena Eilittä analyses Bachmann's work via two key concepts - 'utopia' and 'disillusionment' - which allow her to locate Bachmann's thinking in the post war critical discourse in Germany. Already in her early works Bachmann turns to the idea of utopianism as a possibility to cope with the problems of past heritage and with those of contemporary society. It is this utopian perscpective that allows her to address the position of a woman in critical terms and to make reflections about a more equal society in the major body of her writings. -- Publisher.

In the Name of the Great Work

In the Name of the Great Work PDF Author: Doubravka Olšáková
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1785332538
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
Beginning in 1948, the Soviet Union launched a series of wildly ambitious projects to implement Joseph Stalin’s vision of a total “transformation of nature.” Intended to increase agricultural yields dramatically, this utopian impulse quickly spread to the newly communist states of Eastern Europe, captivating political elites and war-fatigued publics alike. By the time of Stalin’s death, however, these attempts at “transformation”—which relied upon ideologically corrupted and pseudoscientific theories—had proven a spectacular failure. This richly detailed volume follows the history of such projects in three communist states—Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia—and explores their varied, but largely disastrous, consequences.

Socialist Escapes

Socialist Escapes PDF Author: Cathleen M. Giustino
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 0857456709
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
During much of the Cold War, physical escape from countries in the Eastern Bloc was a nearly impossible act. There remained, however, possibilities for other socialist escapes, particularly time spent free from party ideology and the mundane routines of everyday life. The essays in this volume examine sites of socialist escapes, such as beaches, campgrounds, nightclubs, concerts, castles, cars, and soccer matches. The chapters explore the effectiveness of state efforts to engineer society through leisure, entertainment, and related forms of cultural programming and consumption. They lead to a deeper understanding of state–society relations in the Soviet sphere, where the state did not simply “dictate from above” and inhabitants had some opportunities to shape solidarities, identities, and meaning.

Hope Or Disillusion

Hope Or Disillusion PDF Author: John Charles Garrett
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 84

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Book Description