Search

Central Europe is often considered to be a source of nationalist pathologies and plagues that could infect "proper" (Western) Europe. This image is at best outdated, as Western Europe and the United States have (and always have had) their own nationalist and conservative authoritarian resources. Moreover, Central Europe has also been a space of original political thought, albeit often obscure or forgotten, which can contribute to our understanding of the contemporary world beyond the borders of the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the position of Roma youth in Czech rap music. We focus on the role of cultural translation of hip hop culture in general and rap music in particular and the accompanying notions of authenticity. The findings challenge the romantic notion of hip hop as a platform for oppressed marginal communities to express their lived experiences and opinions; rather, we analyze the invisibility and misrepresentation of the Roma in Czech rap music. Using qualitative research methods (in-depth interviews, discourse analysis of rap lyrics and participant observation at hip hop events) we first look at the attitudes of 'white' (majority) Czech rappers towards the Roma community. In the second part of the article, we focus on the Roma presence in Czech rap music, in particular on two case studies of Roma youth groups, as well as on the roles of youth workers and educators and their appropriation of hip hop as a form of Roma integration. Finally we discuss the threat of the burden of a 'triple inauthenticity' of Roma youth in Czech rap music. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article has a twofold aim: 1) to introduce four theoreticians who transfer concepts of postcolonial theory to the analysis of post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe; 2) to apply these concepts to the interpretative dialogue of Milan Kundera's essay *e Tragedy of Central Europe (1983). The article thus presents the main concepts of the Bulgarian historian Maria Todorova (Balkanism and its similarities with and differences to Orientalism), American-Polish literary historian and Slavicist Ewa Thompson (surrogate hegemon, Sarmatism), Russian cultural theorist Madina Tlostanova (speaking from colonial wounds), and Hungarian sociologist Agnes Gagyi. In particular, the presentation of Todorova and Thompson is complemented by the presentation of the debates caused by their work (Diana Mishkova and Rastko Močnik in Todorova's case, Stanley Bill, Jan Sowa, Claudia Snochowska-Gonzalez in Thompson's case) and conceptual alternatives (Maria Janion). The concepts of these authors are used to demonstrate how Kundera's essay is based on his ignorance of both non-European world and European internal peripheries, how it homogenizes Central European experiences, how it replaces politics by culture, and how it contributes to conservative identitarian positions which are not shared by Kundera in his other writings. In conclusion, the article discusses the mutual ignorance of Central European discourse and postcolonial discourse, and the possibilities of dialogue. On the meta-level the article also poses the question of how dialogue between theories of literature and political theory can enrich both participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Slačálek and Svobodová's paper focuses on the ideology of the Czech Islamophobic movement as seen during the 2015-16 migration crisis. In their analysis of interviews with demonstrators and speeches by leaders of the movement, they discuss first how the movement imagined its enemies, and then describe its vision of positive core values. They conclude that the movement's key ideological features are: an emphasis on social and civilizational decline (declinism); a return to an assumed naturalness in economic and gender relationships (naturalization); and the open evocation of violence and severity (brutalization). In terms of Rogers Brubacker's distinction between xenophobic ethno-nationalism in Eastern Europe, and the xenophobic defence of liberal values in the West, Slačálek and Svobodová find that the Czech case fits the allegedly western pattern better than the eastern one, which may cast doubt on the whole essentialization of distinctions between 'western' and 'eastern' populisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]