Abstract
Obrazy nepřítele v Československu 1948-1956 [Images of the Enemy in Czechoslovakia, 1948-1956] by Czech cultural historian Denisa Nečasová examines four groups of enemies constructed by the Czechoslovak media between 1948 and 1956: the bourgeoisie; the so-called "kulaks"; Catholic priests; and the United States of America. The study follows the postmodern linguistic turn and focuses on the relationship between power, ideology and language.
The discourses she examines are described and interpreted in four consecutive chapters. Nečasová captures the generally diminishing intensity of pejorative images, which corresponds to the loosening of the regime after the deaths of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin and Klement Gottwald.
The book's major contribution is that it elucidates the way in which the use of long-term stereotypical constructs helped the Czechoslovak communist regime shape images of its enemies and also that it draws attention to the interconnectedness of Czechoslovak discourses with discourses in Western Europe in the eight years covered by the book. The review is critical of the predominantly descriptive nature of the book and Nečasová's decision not to attempt to reconstruct how Czechoslovak society at the time reacted to the - highly performative - "images of the enemy".