Rebirth of "Czechness" after 1989? National myths and stereotypes in cultural memory in the Czech Republic.

For the formation of a cultural memory, nations, understood as ‚imagined communities’, need myths, i.e. narrations creating identity that provide orientation and safety and negotiate differences and oppositions. Particularly in time of crisis going along with political, historical and social change, old myths are remembered and retold while others are banned from the collective memory and new ones are created. These processes can well be witnessed especially in Eastern Europe, where the search for new positive history narratives, for national self-images as well as for images of others and for meaningful symbols has become virulent since the times of change in 1989.

The present paper deals with media’s handling of several days of remembrance in the Czech Republic, which act as so-called national places of memory: State Foundation in 1918, Munich Agreement in 1938, Communist Takeover in 1948 and Prague Spring in 1968.

The analysis of the medias constructing and transporting national myths like that of the „magic eight“ in Czech history suggests a rebirth of „Czechness“ after 1989, that reflects the old stereotype and national master narrative of the Czech national history as a „tragedy, oppression and the end of the Czech democracy and her traditions“ (Jan Randák).