Abstract
This article traces how the discourse surrounding the ‘expulsion’ of a Czech Republic political activist, Jan Šinágl, which led to his prosecution in July 2012, brings to light the violence embedded in the new order formed with the collapse of the socialist regime in 1989. The term ‘expulsion’ refers to the violent deportations of large numbers of Germans by Czechs at the end of the Second World War and during the post-war period. This article uses the method of Claude Lévi-Strauss's mythology to compare Šinágl's discourse on ‘expulsion’ with the discourse of Slovak historian Danubius and Václav Havel's Prague Castle speech, both of which refer to ‘expulsion.’ Using Walter Benjamin's Critique of Violence as a guide, this article argues how Šinágl's discourse on ‘expulsion’ as ‘divine violence’ exposes the ‘mythic violence’ latent in the self-image of the purified ‘us.’
While this article shares research interests and methods with previous studies on post-socialism concerning the contemporary effects of memories, including the socialist period, it sheds light on new aspects of post-socialism. Specifically, previous studies have focused on cultural representations of the socialist period to elucidate the conditions under which the time and space of post-socialism have been organized. On the contrary, this article explores how the discourse of a political activist, which exposes the violence of order, reorganizes the time and space of post-socialism. Thus, this article provides insight into the paradigm shift from post-socialism to post-post-socialism in the political and cultural spheres of the Czech Republic.
