Course Content
Browse classes:
- Introduction to the course. Heritage and Nostalgia. Theoretical and Methodological Undertakings
- Studying Socialism from a Historical and Anthropological Perspective: Thirty Years after the Political Changes of 1989
- History and Memory of the Communist Period: Traumatic Pasts and Nostalgic Returns
- The Town and the Village – Internal Mobility and Residence Practices. Socialist Transformations and Their Lasting Effects
- Nostalgia of Socialist Everyday Life (1): Work Practices and Labor Organization under Socialism
- Nostalgia of Socialist Everyday Life (2): Free Time, Entertainment, Recreation and Vacations under Socialism
- Consumption under Socialism. Everyday Practices, Memory and Nostalgic Potential
- Living Spaces under Socialism – between Nostalgia and Rejection. The Transformations of Private and Public Spaces after 1989
- Public Rituals and Memorial Spaces of the Communist Period: Continuities, Disruptions, Heritage Construction
- Post-socialism and Post-colonialism: Post-Soviet Nostalgia, Yugonostalgia, Ostnostalgia
- Socialist Heritage and Museum Practices after 1989: between Nostalgia, Denunciation, and Disneyification
- Popular Culture under Socialism: Continuities and Nostalgic Revisiting
- Social Worlds and Transmission of Cultural Experience: Nostalgia and the Issue of Generations
- The Memory of Socialism – between Allergy and Nostalgia, Remembering and Amnesia
- Studying Socialism from the Perspective of Nostalgia and Heritage. Final Presentations and Conclusions
Complete Bibliography:
Introduction to the course. Heritage and Nostalgia. Theoretical and Methodological Undertakings
The class presents the main issues and terminological input related to the concepts of heritage and nostalgia, the links and intertwining between the two concepts, and the processes of heritage construction of the recent past. After presentation of the course outline and the main topics to be covered during the semester, the major part of the class is dedicated to introducing the anthropological approaches of studying heritage and nostalgia, the complexities of post-communist nostalgia, and the difficulties of regarding this epoch through “heritage” lenses.
Texts for discussion:
- Santesso, A., Introduction: What Is Nostalgia? In: Santesso, A., A Careful Longing. The Poetics and Problems of Nostalgia. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2006, 11-26.
- Angé, O. and D. Berliner, Introduction: Anthropology of Nostalgia – Anthropology as Nostalgia. In: Angé, O. and D. Berliner, eds., Anthropology and Nostalgia. New York, Oxford, Berghahn Books, 2015, 1-17.
- Velikonja, M., Lost in Transition. Nostalgia for Socialism in Post-socialist Countries. – East European Politics and Societies, Volume 23, Number 4, Fall 2009, 535-551.
Additional readings:
- Harvey, D., “Heritage Pasts and Heritage Presents: Temporality, Meaning and the Scope of Heritage Studies”, International Journal of Heritage Studies 7(4), 2001: 319-338.
- Lowenthal, D., The Heritage Crusade and the Spoils of History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
- McDowell, S., “Heritage, Memory and Identity,” In: Graham, B., P. Howard (eds.), The Ashgate Research Companion to Heritage and Identity, Hampshire; Burlington: Ashgate, 2008, 37-53.