CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2022
| Author | Filip Rambousek |
|---|---|
| Title | Getting Rid of an Uncomfortable Past? Interpreting the Gradual Disappearance of the Architectural Heritage of Socialism in Post-Socialist Czechia |
| Summary | In order to make sense of the gradual disappearance of the ‘socialist’ architecture in post-socialist Czechia, the thesis focuses on three major public debates that aroused around the controversial demolition of the Ještěd department store in Liberec (2005–2009), Hotel Praha in Prague (2013–2014), and the administrative complex Transgas in Prague’s city center (2015–2019). I argue that the prevailing negative image of the communist past manifested itself both in the public and expert discussions, and penetrated even some of the official documents issued by state heritage institutions. This implies that the anti-communist discourse of the 1990s remained influential until the late 2010s – despite frequent claims about its gradual weakening. In the course of time, the architecture of socialism saw increasing interest of the general public as well as scholars, as a result of which the nature of the debate changed considerably. New forms of protests emerged, and young scholars enriched the debate with new types of argumentation. Despite that, however, the last three decades were marked by a gradual elimination of the built heritage of socialism. I conclude that even though this process can hardly be regarded as an act of active forgetting, it might eventually influence the way the communist past will be remembered in the future. |
| Supervisor | Miller, Michael Laurence |
| Department | Nationalism Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2022/rambousek_filip.pdf |
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