The Protean Nature of Communist Censorship: the Testimony of Collections
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
The COURAGE Handbook ushers its reader into the world of the compellingly rich heritage of cultural opposition in Eastern Europe. It is intended primarily to further a subtle understanding of the complex and multifaceted nature of cultural opposition and its legacy from the perspective of the various collections held in public institutions or by private individuals across the region. Through its focus on material heritage, the handbook provides new perspectives on the history of dissent and cultural non-conformism in the former socialist countries of Central, Eastern, and South- eastern Europe. The volume is comprised of contributions by over 60 authors from a range of different academic and national backgrounds who share their insights into the topic. It offers focused discussions from comparative and transnational perspectives of the key themes and prevailing forms of opposition in the region, including non-conformist art, youth sub-cultures, intellectual dissent, religious groups, underground rock, avantgarde theater, exile, traditionalism, ethnic revivalism, censorship, and surveillance. The handbook provides its reader with a concise synthesis of the existing scholarship and suggests new avenues for further research. THE HANDBOOK OF COURAGE: CULTURAL OPPOSITION AND ITS HERITAGE IN EASTERN EUROPE COURAGE_Könyv.indb 1 2018. 11. 06. 10:32:36 COURAGE_Könyv.indb 2 2018. 11. 06. 10:32:36 The Handbook of COURAGE: Cultural Opposition and Its Heritage in Eastern Europe Edited by Balázs Apor, Péter Apor and Sándor Horváth Institute of History, Research Centre for the Humanities, Hungarian Academy of Sciences Budapest 2018 COURAGE_Könyv.indb 3 2018. 11. 06. 10:32:36 This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 692919 COURAGE Registry http://cultural-opposition.eu/registry/ Proofreaders: Thomas Cooper, Thomas Szerecz, Kerry Tyrrell Bibliography and Index: Lóránt Bódi and Heléna Huhák Cover: Anna Győrffy © 2018 by Balázs Apor, Péter Apor and Sándor Horváth editorial matter and selection; individual chapters © individual contributors All rights reserved ISBN 978-963-416-142-4 DOI: 10.24389/handbook Published by the Research Centre for the Humanities of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Responsible editor: Pál Fodor Prepress preparation: Institute of History, RCH HAS Research Assistance Team; Leader: Éva Kovács Page layout: Andrea Hudecz Printed in Hungary by Prime Rate Kft., Budapest COURAGE_Könyv.indb 4 2018. 11. 06. 10:32:36 CONTENTS PART I: INTRODUCTION Balázs Apor, Péter Apor, Sándor Horváth, Tamás Scheibner: Cultural Opposition: Concepts and Approaches . 9 Bernadett Csurgó, Judit Gárdos, Szabina Kerényi, Éva Kovács, András Micsik: The Registry: Empirical and Epistemological Analyses . 27 PART II: COUNTRIES Saulius Grybkauskas, Vladas Sirutavičius: The Baltic States . 53 Michaela Kůželová, Miroslav Michela, Magdaléna Stýblová: Czechoslovakia .............................................. 75 Albert Bing, Josip Mihaljević, Jacqueline Nießer: Yugoslavia .............. 97 Natalia Hristova, Anelia Kassabova, Ulf Brunnbauer: Bulgaria . 117 Péter Apor: Hungary .............................................. 137 Cristina Petrescu: Romania ......................................... 151 Andrei Cuşco: Moldova . 171 Orysia Kulick, Balázs Apor: Ukraine . 187 Hanna Gospodarczyk, Barbara Tołłoczko: Poland . 207 Rainer Eckert, Laura Demeter, Uwe Sonnenberg: German Democratic Republic (GDR) . 221 PART III: THEMES Jérôme Bazin, Sándor Hornyik, Tihomir Milovac, Xawery Stańczyk: Narratives and Places of Cultural Opposition in the Visual Arts .... 241 Mikołaj Kunicki, Nevena Daković, Dominic Leppla: Cultural Opposition and Filmmaking in Communist East Central Europe: Lessons from Poland and the Former Yugoslavia . 267 Andrea F. Bohlman, Peter Motyčka, Marcus Zagorski, Vladimír Zvara: Music and Cultural Opposition ................................ 289 Tamás Scheibner, Kathleen Cioffi: Archiving the Literature and Theater of Dissent: Beyond the Canon . 307 Epp Lauk, Petr Šámal, Teodora Shek Brnardić: The Protean Nature of Communist Censorship: The Testimony of Collections .......... 329 Péter Apor, Saulius Grybkauskas, Sándor Horváth, Heléna Huhák: Surveillance and Memory: Repositories of Cultural Opposition . 351 Péter Apor, Josip Mihaljević, Cristina Petrescu: Collections of Intellectual Dissent: Historians and Sociologists in post-1968 Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia . 369 5 COURAGE_Könyv.indb 5 2018. 11. 06. 10:32:36 CONTENTS József Havasréti, Sándor Horváth, Yvetta Kajanová, Miroslav Michela: Youth Cultures: Escape to Gospel Songs, Rock and Punk .......... 391 Nicole Burgoyne, Friederike Kind-Kovács, Jessie Labov, Veronika Tuckerová, Piotr Wciślik: Unlicensed and Unbound: Researching Textual Traffic (Samizdat/Tamizdat) and Information Flow Across Borders . 415 András Fejérdy, Tatiana Vagramenko, Áron Kovács, Mateja Režek, Jure Ramšak: Religious Resistance: Forms, Sources and Collections .............................................. 445 Balázs Apor, Mikołaj Kunicki, Tatiana Vagramenko: Cultural Opposition Goes Abroad: The Collections of Diaspora Communities ................................................ 473 Celia Donert, Szabina Kerényi, Orysia Kulick, Zsófia Lóránd: Unlocking New Histories of Human Rights in State Socialist Europe: The Role of the COURAGE Collections .................. 493 Ivo Banac, Stefano Bottoni, Andrei Cușco, Alexander Vezenkov: National Movements, Regionalism, Minorities ................... 523 Jacqueline Nießer, Thomas Skowronek, Friederike Kind-Kovács, Ulf Brunnbauer: Cultural Opposition as Transnational Practice . 551 Bernadett Csurgó, Csongor Jánosi, Katalin Juhász, Vladas Sirutavičius, Corneliu Pintilescu: Folklore Revivalism and Ethnography: Alternatives to Everyday Culture . 573 Abbreviations ................................................... 603 Contributors . 609 Name Index ..................................................... 613 Subject Index .................................................... 627 6 COURAGE_Könyv.indb 6 2018. 11. 06. 10:32:36 PART I INTRODUCTION COURAGE_Könyv.indb 7 2018. 11. 06. 10:32:36 COURAGE_Könyv.indb 8 2018. 11. 06. 10:32:36 BALÁZS APOR – PÉTER APOR – SÁNDOR HORVÁTH – TAMÁS SCHEIBNER Cultural Opposition: Concepts and Approaches The COURAGE Handbook The Handbook, which is the main publication that grows out of the COUR- AGE project, presents the initial findings of the research consortium. The main aim of the volume is to discuss the complexities and the legacy of cultur- al opposition from the perspective of the collections and suggest possible frameworks of re-conceptualizations of the history of dissent and non-con- formism in the former socialist countries of Central, Eastern, and Southeast- ern Europe. Since the format of the publication is a handbook, the narrative aims to offer a synthesis of the existing scholarship, but also to break new ground at the same time. The structure of the individual chapters reflects this ambition. The Handbook revolves around the material heritage of cultural opposi- tion: the collections. It provides an overview of the history and typology of collections in the countries studied in the framework of the project and offers a concise analysis of the various types of cultural opposition from the perspec- tive of collections. The volume is divided into three parts: the introductory chapters; the country chapters; and the thematic chapters. The introductory section of the book contains two chapters that outline the main aim of COUR- AGE, introduce the key concepts with which the book engages, and provide a general historical-sociological assessment of the collections represented in the COURAGE Registry. Part II of the handbook consists of concise overviews of the countries—or a cluster of countries—that were explored as part of the project. The country chapters reflect on the history and the material heritage of cultural opposition in the respective countries from the viewpoint of the collections that have shaped and continue to shape the legacy of dissent in the region. The focus of the volume shifts from countries to themes in Part III, which is the most substantial part of the handbook. The chapters in Part III analyze individual collections with regard to specific types or forms of cultur- al opposition. Each chapter consists of a brief yet comprehensive introduction to the overall theme, as well as a number of case studies discussing one or a small number of relevant collections. Although the narratives in the individu- al chapters were shaped by the specific stories that emerged from the collec- tions, all chapters reflect on the history and social/political use (or abuse) of 9 COURAGE_Könyv.indb 9 2018. 11. 06. 10:32:36 BALÁZS APOR – PÉTER APOR – SÁNDOR HORVÁTH – TAMÁS SCHEIBNER the respective collections. While the thematic chapters present only a repre- sentative sample of the collections that were analyzed in the framework of COURAGE, they all follow a comparative approach and highlight the similar- ities, parallels, and transnational entanglements that the study of collections in different social and cultural contexts brought to the fore. No single book could do justice to the spectacular diversity and richness of material contained in the collections of cultural opposition in Europe and, indeed, across the globe. Thus, the present volume should serve mostly as a first port of call and an essential guide for the curious reader who wishes to navigate through