Past for the Eyes : East European Representations of Communism in Cinema and Museums After 1989

How do museums and cinema shape the image of the Communist past in today's Central and Eastern Europe? This volume is the first systematic analysis of how visual techniques are used to understand and put into context the former regimes. After history “ended” in the Eastern Bloc in 1989, museums and other memorials mushroomed all over the region. These efforts tried both to explain the meaning of this lost history, as well as to shape public opinion on their society's shared post-war heritage. Museums and films made political use of recollections of the recent past, and employed selected museum, memorial, and media tools and tactics to make its political intent historically credible. Thirteen essays from scholars around the region take a fresh look at the subject as they address the strategies of fashioning popular perceptions of the recent past. Contents Introduction Documents Of Communism: Lost And Found Documents Of Communism: Lost And Found The Man in the White Raincoat Communist Secret Services on the Screen. The Duna-gate Scandal in and beyond the Hungarian Media Façades The Private and the Public in Kádár’s Kiss by Péter Forgács The Experiences of a Filmmaker. Reconstructing Reality from Documents in Communist Archives Subjects of Nostalgia: Selling the Past Out of the Past. Memories and Nostalgia in (Post-)Yugoslav Cinema Long Farewells. The Anatomy of the Soviet Past in Contemporary Russian Cinema The Economics of Nostalgia. Socialist Films and Capitalist Commodities in Contemporary Poland “We Have Democracy, Don’t We?” Czech Society as Reflected in Contemporary Czech Cinema Objects of Memory: Museums, Monuments, Memorials The Redistribution of the Memory of Socialism. Identity Formations of the “Survivors” in Hungary after 1989 Raising the Cross. Exorcising Romania’s Communist Past in Museums, Memorials and Monuments The “Unmemorable” and the “Unforgettable.” “Museumizing” the Socialist Past in Post-1989 Bulgaria Containing Fascism. History in Post-Communist Baltic Occupation and Genocide Museums How Is Communism Displayed? Exhibitions and Museums of Communism in Poland About the Authors Name Index Subject Index How do post-communist museums and cinema contribute to shaping the image of a communist past in contemporary Central and Eastern Europe? This is the first systematic analysis of the use of visual techniques in grasping what the previous regime means. After the past was lost in 1989 in the former communist world, museums and memorials started mushrooming all over East and Central Europe. While reflecting on possible, actual meanings of the lost history the aim of shaping public opinion and discourse of the recent communist past also became apparent. Most of these undertakings - movies included - tried hard to make political use of recollections of the earlier world, and employed select tools from contemporary museological, memorializing and new-media practice to make their politicized intent historically credible. Thirteen essays from scholars in the region deal with the use of new media in shaping and fashioning popular perception of the previous era, and provide a fresh approach to the subject

How do museums and cinema shape the image of the Communist past in today's Central and Eastern Europe? This volume is the first systematic analysis of how visual techniques are used to understand and put into context the former regimes.After history "ended" in the Eastern Bloc in 1989, museums and other memorials mushroomed all over the region. These efforts tried both to explain the meaning of this lost history, as well as to shape public opinion on their society's shared post-war heritage. Museums and films made political use of recollections of the recent past, and employed selected museum, memorial, and media tools and tactics to make its political intent historically credible.Thirteen essays from scholars around the region take a fresh look at the subject as they address the strategies of fashioning popular perceptions of the recent past.