Area J

Past and future: politics of memory, philosophy of history, and the idea of innovation

Panel J1: Czechoslovakia as a realization of the philosophy of Czech history?

The origin of Czechoslovakia was not only the result of a certain historical compromise. Its founders also saw it as the beginning of the realization of the philosophy of Czech history. In The Czech Question, Masaryk expressed the idea of Czech history in the following way: humanity as an ideal of universal and thus transnational fraternity, which blends with the social question. In a unique way, Masaryk conceived the particularism of certain national histories as a genesis of a universal supranational idea. However, in many ways, the interwar Czechoslovakia was not able to solve the "social question". We would welcome contributions that bring forward ongoing discussion of "the meaning of Czech history", and its ideological and social context, from the perspective of Czechoslovak, as well as foreign actors.

Michal Hauser (chair)

Panel J2: Newly created and vanished places of memory – physical and symbolic spaces

Every community that perceives itself as such – including the newly formed states after 1918 – creates a system of phenomena that help to anchor its identity. Whether we call them places of memory, symbolic centres, identification patterns, or otherwise, these can be to some extent identified in the given epoch. Was the process of creating such "places of memory" in the Czechoslovak Republic, an uninterrupted continuation of the "conflicting community" or an entirely new "invented tradition"? And how did this process differ from, or consist with, the surrounding states of the Central European area? In this section, we will attempt to look for answers to these and other questions.

Vojtěch Kessler (chair)

Panel J3: Imagination and self-creation – new ways of thinking in Central Europe in the 1920s

What role did imagination play in the life of post-war Central European society? The experience of war-time and upheavals, which ushered in new republican establishments, shifted the boundaries of the imaginable and possible. In the post-war era, a new function was gained by art. Emphasis was put on its effect on people, their development and emancipation. Literary fiction, from theatre plays to utopian novels, became more socially engaged. The challenge of human self-development fluctuated between visions of liberation, ethical introspection, and ascetic self-perfection, whether individual or collective. From the Central European avantgarde artists, through the nonconform economists, political scientists and philosophers to the forgotten authors of utopian novels, a new emphasis on imagination, the possibility of self-creation, and the transformation of the world significantly influenced the society of the time. We welcome contributions from philosophy, literary science, history, political science and anthropology.

Joseph Grim Feinberg (chair)