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Full Description
Scholarly interpretations of the collapse of communism and developments thereafter have tended to be primarily concerned with people's need to rid themselves of the communist system, of their past. The expectations, dreams, and hopes that ordinary Eastern Europeans had when they took to the streets in 1989, and have had ever since, have therefore been overlooked - and our understanding of the changes in post-communist Europe has remained incomplete. Focusing primarily on five key areas, such as the heritage of 1989 revolutions, ambivalence, disillusionment, individualism, and collective identities, this book explores the expectations and goals that ordinary Eastern Europeans had during the 1989 revolutions and the decade thereafter, and also the problems and disappointments they encountered in the course of the transformation. The analysis is based on extensive interviews with university students and young intellectuals in the Czech Republic, Eastern Germany and Estonia in the 1990s, which in themselves have considerable value as historical documents.
Contents
List of Figures and Tables
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Background
The Rejection of Utopia
Empirical Sources and Narrativity
The Structure of the Study
Concluding Remarks
Chapter 1. Narratives of the Revolutions
Estonia - the Singing Revolution
The German Democratic Republic - die sanfte Revolution
Czechoslovakia - the Velvet Revolution
By Way of Conclusion
Chapter 2. Revolution as a Utopia
The Notion of Utopia
Freedom
Future
Concluding Remarks
Chapter 3. Utopia Not Yet Fulfilled: Ambivalence after the Revolutions
Post-revolutionary Ambivalence
Postmodern Ambivalence
Concluding Remarks
Excursus: Ambivalence in Ivan Klíma's Poslední stupenv duo vevrnosti
Chapter 4. Utopia Not Fulfilled: Disillusionment
Material Reasons for Disillusionment
Atomisation
Alienation
Excursus: Diachronic and Synchronic Alienation in Post-communist
Novels
Acceptance: Sacrifice
Concluding Remarks
Chapter 5. Individualism as a Utopia
The Notion of Individualism
Individualism and Communism
Individualism and Post-communism
Individualism, Politics and Democracy
Chapter 6. Collective Utopias: From National Independence to Europe
Nationalism and Communism
The Idea of the Nation: Present and Not Yet Present
The Utopian Struggle
National Identity: Universal or Particular?
Concluding Remarks
Conclusion: Politics between Utopia and Disillusionment
Understanding Post-communist Politics
The Utopia of Politics
Final Remarks
Appendices
The Interviews and the Method of Analysis
Themes of the Interviews
Themes for the Czech essayists
President Lennart Meri's Speeches Analysed in Chapter 6.
Translations of the German Interview Passages
Notes
Bibliography
Index
