June 21

9:00 AM - 10:45 AM

1.B.03

Reka Deim

Abstract: The Hungarian government continues to challenge European values following the 2018 electoral victory, which has far-reaching consequences on the identity politics of the Central European region. This paper tackles the interrelatedness of the idea of sovereignty with narratives of victimhood and anti-communism by exploring how they are visually articulated in the current memory politics. The systematic construction of the country’s political and ideological system since 2010 requires the reinvention and remediation of history in the public sphere. In the government’s narrative framework, communism is the paragon of ideologies imposed on Hungary by external powers, therefore, the reinterpretation of the memory of the communist era has recently taken a central role in the government’s rhetoric and it also manifests in memorial sites. The official historical framework will be approached through the concept of “illiberal democracy” (Zakaria, 1997), a political system embedded in populist nationalist ideology. The construction and transmission of narratives that propagate “illiberal” values will be investigated with an interdisciplinary approach that combines insights of political science, memory studies and cultural theory. In so doing, the paper aims at better understanding strategies and responses to challenge the “illiberal” ideology and, therefore, will reflect on counter-narratives and activities carried out by the political-cultural opposition. The urgency of such analysis is underlined by the upcoming European elections, as narratives revolving around the concepts of sovereignty, victimhood and anti-communism shape not only national but also Central European identities due to the region’s shared histories.

Disciplines: Art History
History

Substantive Tags: Central Europe, Identity and Ethnicity, Memory Studies, Populism, Visual Arts

Research Networks: None of the Above

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