Abstract
The paper deals with a discourse on Šumava National Park which is the biggest protected area in the Czech Republic. There has been a long-term discussion on its purpose and its future direction.
This discussion is very polarized and stems from a long dispute about what is primary: On one hand, it may be the conservation of nature and its processes, on the other hand the way of the resettlement of empty areas and creation of new mountain resorts. In other words, the crucial question in the debate on Šumava is whether the future of this area may be either natural or cultural.
Participants of opposite discursive coalitions (cf. Hajer, 1993) often aim to show a coherent picture of the past of Šumava - either as a traditionaly populated area or as wilderness (cf.
Hořejší, 2013a, b). These arguments lead to the construction of persuasive historical background which can serve as a solid analogy for the future direction of the local management.
I am going to present a critical discourse analysis of the texts from the various periods from the late 19th century to the present which share one macro-topic, i.e. Šumava. The material originates predominantly from the media, with some extension to fiction, geographical guides and social networks.
My paper deals with the conceptualization of the past of the area of Šumava National Park and the position of the notion of "the past" in the order of the discourse. The paper focuses particularly on dominant events that have remarkably changed the sociocultural arrangement of this area - mainly economical growth in the late 19th century, period of the Second World War, compulsory evacuation of German-speaking population, and the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989.
Methodologically, the paper is based on a Discourse-Historical Approach (cf. Wodak - Meyer, 2009) which is particularly convenient for a diachronic discourse analysis.