Uncertain Guilt: How the Czech Television Serial Vyprávěj Stirred Up Viewers´ Memories of Socialism

Abstract

This chapter looks at how television programming intervenes in the formation of post-socialist memory. Our main goal is to examine how memory (interrupted by the politics of a thick line after 1989) is secured by the semiotic power of people and how the practices of reading popular culture are involved in this process.

We are interested in the ways in which ordinary people attempt to regain a sense of continuity by fostering different genres of memory, and in how the mnemonic function of popular television can stimulate this process.

Keywords

• collective memory
• television
• audience
• history
• post-socialism