Narratives Unbound
Historical studies in post-communist Eastern Europe
Edited by
Sorin Antohi, Orbis Tertius, Institute of Cultural
Studies, Bucharest
Balázs Trencsényi, Assistant Professor
of History, Central European University, Budapest
Péter Apor, Research Fellow, Pasts, Inc. Center
for Historical Studies, Central European University,
Budapest
"An excellent addition to the existing literature
on postsocialist historiography in eastern and southeastern
Europe. A particular strength of the contributions is
their coherence.
This well-edited book will appeal not only to specialists
of east central and southeastern European history and
historiography but would also be an asset in classes
dealing with collective memory and historiography in
this region." - Slavic Review
The first work that covers the post-Communist development
of historical studies in six Eastern European countries:
Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania,
and Slovakia. A uniquely critical and qualitative analysis
from a comparative and critical perspective, written
by scholars from the region itself.
Focusing on the first post-Communist decade, 1989–1999,
the book offers a longer-term perspective that includes
the immediate ‘prehistory’ of that momentous
decade as well as its ‘posthistoire’. The
authors capture the spirit of 1989, that heady mix of
elation, surprise, determination, and hope: l’ivresse
du possible. This was the paradoxical beginning
of Eastern European post-Communism: ushered in by ‘anti-Utopian’
revolutions, and slowly finding its course towards a
bureaucratic, imitative, challenging, and anachronistic
restoration of a capitalism that had changed almost
beyond recognition when it had mutated into the negative
double of Communism. Each individual chapter has numerous
and detailed notes and references.
Contents
Sorin Antohi: Narratives Unbound: A Brief
Introduction to Post-Communist Historical Studies; Balázs
Trencsényi and Péter Apor: Fine-Tuning
the Polyphonic Past. Hungarian Historical Writing in
the 1990s; Maciej Górny: From the Splendid
Past into the Unknown Future. Historical Studies in
Poland after 1989; Pavel Kolář and Michal
Kopeček: A Difficult Quest for New Paradigms:
Czech Historiography After 1989; Zora Hlavičková:
Wedged Between National and Trans-National History:
Slovak Historiography in the 1990s; Cristina Petrescu
and Dragoş Petrescu: Mastering vs. Coming
to Terms with the Past. A Critical Analysis of Post-Communist
Romanian Historiography; Ivan Elenkov and Daniela
Koleva: Historical Studies in Post-Communist Bulgaria.
Between Academic Standards and Political Agendas
"The historian’s craft from the annus
mirabilis (1989) to the fin-de-siecle is
scrutinized by a team of young scholars from Hungary,
Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, and Bulgaria.
Inspired by and atuned to a truly comparative agenda
and methodology, these richly detailed and rigorously
analytical surveys of the historical profession in the
six post-communist countries provide an indispensable
base for transregional and transnational comparisons
and syntheses. A valuable and well-crafted volume that
brings historiography to the center-stage and that,
hopefully, will inspire similar endeavors not only across
Europe but also in the newly emerging field of world
history."
Maria Todorova, Professor of History,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
"To find itself and its way into
the future, Europe needs to look at its past and at
its historiography. This book closes a hurting gap in
our knowledge of historical studies and of their public
resonance in six countries from East Central and Southeastern
Europe, usually overlooked by syntheses devoted to European
historical studies. The editors and the authors provide
abundant information on and thorough critical assessments
of the way scholars from these EU newcomers research,
understand, and represent their respective national
histories after the dramatic turn of 1989. Thus, they
significantly contribute to the articulation of a vision
of Europe as a living unity of diverse and interactive
pasts."
Jörn Rüsen, President, Kulturwissenschaftliches
Institut. Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities,
Essen
"This collection of studies of Eastern European
historiography will be much welcomed by Western European
and New World scholars. The coverage of the six countries
treated is comprehensive, the issues clearly identified,
and the scholarship impressive. Anyone interested in
the problem of writing history in the wake of the Second
World War in contested areas (and what areas were not?)
will want to study this book. Antohi is an authoritative
expert on historiography and one of the few theorists
of history and history writing with a cosmopolitan perspective."
Hayden White, University Professor
Emeritus, University of California, and Professor of
Comparative Literature, Stanford University
2007
512 pages
ISBN 978-963-7326-85-1 cloth $54.95 / €46.95/ £37.00
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