Suitcases, Borders and Ode to Joy : Near and Far Europe in Museum Presentations of Contemporary History in Former Socialist Countries of the East-Central Europe
Abstract
The question of belonging to "Europe'', often equated with the geopolitically understood West, has become one of the cornerstones of the identity of most post-socialist countries in East-Central Europe. As such, it also significantly influences the ways of narrating contemporary history, which often show the "return/ access to Europe'' as a turning point, closing one historical era. On the contrary, the issue of "separation" from the rest of Europe is used in some countries as a discursive tool to condemn previous regimes: eg. by underlining questions of the regulations of traveling, which penetrates the common imaginary about everyday life in socialist times.
Based on the author's doctoral research, the paper will focus closer on thematization of the rapprochement and separation in relation to Europe in current contemporary history museums in East-Central Europe. By analyzing selected examples of museum narrations, we aim to reflect their role in masternarratives on the recent history in the region. We would also like to examine, to what extent are these narrations consensual, how far they cover perspectives of various social and regional groups, and whether current politics of memory and the museum practices let the space to show those topics in more critical ways.