CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2012
| Author | Reti, Zsofia |
|---|---|
| Title | The Remains of the Happiest Barrack - The Materiality of Nostalgia and Trauma in Post-Socialist Hungary |
| Summary | This thesis aims to answer the research question of how is the state socialist past represented to Hungarian teenagers. It uses the Statue Park of Budapest and the House of Terror as exemplary case studies where tensions between different approaches towards the past are displayed. In this paper I argue that most ubiquitous strategy of dealing with the state socialist past is its homogenization and distancing. This approach enables those who are presently in power to define themselves in contrast with the communist past as liberal and democratic. The House of Terror with its ethical-traumatic understanding of the past and the collective victimization of the nation is a site where these intentions are clearly presented. As opposed to this, the Statue Park, while offering this kind of approach as well, also enables the visitors to interact with a specific representation of the past in alternative ways, such as active re-living, individual or cultural nostalgia, irony and laughter. |
| Supervisor | Naumescu, Vlad; Siefert, Marsha |
| Department | Sociology MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2012/reti_zsofia.pdf |
Visit the CEU Library.
© 2007-2021, Central European University