Negotiating Identity and Collective Memory in Czech Silesia

Johana Wyss

Negotiating Identity and Collective Memory in Czech Silesia

This study offers an ethnographic exploration of how memory, identity, and history are contested in the city of Opava and the surrounding Hlu.ín area – former sites of Austrian and Prussian rule shaped by post-imperial legacies, displacement, and shifting national narratives. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, the book investigates how local communities navigate dominant Czech nationalism and vernacular Silesian identities through memorials, oral histories, cultural expression, and tourism. Chapters explore themes such as Wehrmacht legacies, linguistic politics, and the branding of Silesian cuisine, revealing how cultural memory is selectively preserved, silenced, or commodified. Through rich case studies, the book highlights the tensions between official discourses and grassroots memory practices, showing how identity in this Central European borderland is continually reconstructed. Blending theoretical depth with lived experience, this study offers new insight into the role of collective memory in shaping belonging in post-imperial, post-socialist Europe.
+
Reserveren via Taylor & Francis External Link
CEU Press titels reserveren via Taylor & Francis
Auteur

Johana Wyss

Johana Wyss is a social anthropologist and tenured researcher at the Czech Academy of Sciences. She examines memory politics, identity, political polarisation, and ethno-national formation in Central and Eastern Europe. Her work explores how post-imperial legacies and contested borderland histories shape collective memory and contemporary identity narratives.
Titel
Negotiating Identity and Collective Memory in Czech Silesia
Auteur
Prijs
€ 122,00 excl. BTW
ISBN
9789633867907
Uitvoering
Hardback
Aantal pagina's
220
Taal
Engels
Publicatiedatum
Afmetingen
15.6 x 23.4 cm
Serie
Memory, Heritage and Public History in Central and Eastern Europe - CEU Press
Categorieën
Eastern Central Europe
Heritage and Memory Studies
Political Science
Sociology and Social History
Sociology and Social History
Discipline
Social and Political Sciences
Imprint
Inhoudsopgave
Toon inhoudsopgaveVerberg inhoudsopgave
Introduction
Ch1: Silesia’s Turbulent Past and Present
Ch2: Silesian Identity: Hlu.íns and Opavians
Ch3: Remembering the Vanished Others
Ch4: Grandfathers in the Wehrmacht
Ch5: German Past, Czech Present
Conclusion / Epilogue
Bibliography