Hegemony of 'Dutiful Work'. (Trans-) Formation of hegemonic Discourses and Post-war Czech Society between Nationalism and Socialism 1945-1960
Abstract
The development of the Czech society after 1945 could be analyzed in many ways and from many different views. After a failure of the liberal project of the first Czechoslovakian republic in the second half of the 1930's and after the catastrophe of the Second World War stood the restored state between two dominant cultural value systems - between East and West (Brenner, 2009).
In my conference paper I would like to look into the process of rearticulating the traditional Czech nationalist trope of an "honest" or "dutiful" work within the formation of the post-war hegemonic discourses. In observing the changes of dominant discourses on the one hand and the changing language of the acteurs and debates at the time on the other, I would like to contribute to the deeper understanding of the historical situatedness of cultural hegemony illustrated by concrete examples.
At the time of the Stalinization of society, the post-war Czech nationalist construction was changed to fit the current criteria and in the system crisis and the politics of the "New Course" after 1953 it was changed into the promise of the fulfillment of "life in satisfaction" to the citizens. The Communist Party then finally managed to stabilize the social situation - at the latest during 1957.
Besides other things I would like to answer those questions: Which experiences were the acteurs in these times unable to articulate within the dominant cultural value system? And which experiences were on the other hand constituent for the constitution and everyday negotiation of the communist rule? How did the hegemonic discourses change within the everyday world of meaning? And is the concept of ideological hegemony even defensible in relation to the social praxis?