Centrum pro studium populární kultury

The conference occured on Friday 27th and Saturday 28th 2011 in Moravian town Moravská Třebová. Ondřej Daniel in the opening speech pointed that the aim of this project was to open a critical discussion about Czech identity.

The conference begun on Friday morning with Muriel Blaive talking about „the small Czech man“, defined by her local research in České Velenice. Other speakers contributed with themes like Czech anti-Semitism, TV and its influence on building of Czech identity, or memory connected to Střekov castle and celebrations of anniversaries of Jan Hus. On Friday afternoon the program shifted to subcultures in the bohemian area since 90s till nowadays: punks, skins, hip-hop, tekno, emo. And the last block aimed on the beginnings of Czech popular culture. The keynote speaker prof. Jiřina Šmejkalová from the University of Lincoln talked about Cultural studies in the context of central Europe and its further perspectives.

The second day of the conference begun with themes connected to socialist popular culture. Last but not least in this block two gender studies took place. First case study tried to find the interpretations of Věra Chytilová’s movies through the theories by Slavoj Žižek. The second one focused on gender representations in the late-socialist literature. The whole programme was closed on Saturday afternoon. Speakers of the last block interpreted the popular culture of these days: popmusic, unisex magazines and a comparison of Czech and German ostalgia.

After the official end of the conference the results of an international workshop were presented. 

For photos and czech text click here.