Past for the Eyes
East European Representations of Communism in Cinema and Museums After 1989
9789639776050
436 pages
Amsterdam University Press
Overview
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.Author Bio
Oksana Sarkisova is a Research Archivist at OSA Archivum, Central European University and Program Director of the International Documentary Film Festival Verzió.
Péter Apor is permanent research fellow at the Institute of History, Humanities Research Center, Budapest.
