"As a historian, I know ...": Historical novel, objectivity, analogy and new alt-right media ecologies in post-crisis Czech Republic
Abstract
Almost ten years ago Ann Rigney (2010) argued that the conceptions of narrative has been too narrowly based on the model of historical monograph with its single author and self-contained and finished character and that we have to consider the new media ecologies to change our view of the social production of history as a process of negotiation and circulation across different offline and online media. In recent decade this trend has significantly accelerated, and history has become an issues of complex media networks of online, audiovisual or virtual relations. However, this process of change cannot be viewed as a linear one-way shift from the "book" culture to participatory online complex.
In this paper I will present a case study of media ecology around Czech "historian and writer" Vlastimil Vondruška, by far the most popular Czech writer who has been the most successful author in Czech public libraries for several years and who sold more than a million copies of his numerous historical novels and nonfiction books in Czech during last decade (in the country with population of ten million). While he presents himself as a historian (he has a PhD in ethnology/Volkskunde) and a writer, he is severely criticised by the professional historians for his misleading work with historical sources and documents, poor knowledge of the state of the art research and misinterpretation of facts. Furthermore, based on his popularity as a historical fiction author and misused "objectivist" authority of his historical scholarship (using frequently the phrase "As a historian I know that...") he managed to become a star intellectual figure among the alt-right, nationalist, anti-immigrant and xenophobic audience. His success has been fuelled by smart combination of extensive touring around the country with lectures and debates about his books together with his well-established position in media reaching from the mainstream to alternative alt-right media. Within this complex media ecology of historical novels, nonfiction, alternative web sides and social networks and face-to-face communication he has commented on virtually any public issue using ready-made and misleading historical analogies and arguing that present-day elites has betrayed "the people" and are destroying traditional European Christian value system with EU bureaucracy, self-destructive immigration policies, support of NGO activism, liberal cosmopolitanism etc.
In the paper I want to address the question why is this complex media presentation so successful? What are the social practices that are used to build and maintain such a large interest and audience? Who is the audience and its expectations that are so successfully addresed in the work of Vondruška? What are the narrative strategies, including use of analogies, that are mobilized to meet the expectations? And shouldn't we correct the techno-optimistic vision of 'convergence culture' (H. Jenkins 2006) in the social context where there is still high demand for old-fashioned print media and formats (eg. historical novel) and face-to-face communication?