View in EDS PDF Full Text ePub Full Text

The Greengrocer and His TV : The Culture of Communism After the 1968 Prague Spring

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Title: The Greengrocer and His TV : The Culture of Communism After the 1968 Prague Spring
Description: The 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia brought an end to the Prague Spring and its promise of'socialism with a human face.'Before the invasion, Czech reformers had made unexpected use of television to advance political and social change. In its aftermath, Communist Party leaders employed the medium to achieve'normalization,'pitching television stars against political dissidents in a televised spectacle that defined the times. The Greengrocer and His TV offers a new cultural history of communism from the Prague Spring to the Velvet Revolution that reveals how state-endorsed ideologies were played out on television, particularly through soap opera-like serials. In focusing on the small screen, Paulina Bren looks to the'normal'of normalization, to the everyday experience of late communism. The figure central to this book is the greengrocer who, in a seminal essay by Václav Havel, symbolized the ordinary citizen who acquiesced to the communist regime out of fear. Bren challenges simplistic dichotomies of fearful acquiescence and courageous dissent to dramatically reconfigure what we know, or think we know, about everyday life under communism in the 1970s and 1980s. Deftly moving between the small screen, the street, and the Central Committee (and imaginatively drawing on a wide range of sources that include television shows, TV viewers'letters, newspapers, radio programs, the underground press, and the Communist Party archives), Bren shows how Havel's greengrocer actually experienced'normalization'and the ways in which popular television serials framed this experience. Now back by popular demand, socialist-era serials, such as The Woman Behind the Counter and The Thirty Adventures of Major Zeman, provide, Bren contends, a way of seeing—literally and figuratively—Czechoslovakia's normalization and Eastern Europe's real socialism.
Authors: Paulina Bren
Resource Type: eBook.
Subjects: Communism and culture--Czechoslovakia--History--20th century, Political culture--Czechoslovakia--History--20th century, Television and politics--Czechoslovakia--History--20th century
Categories: HISTORY / Europe / Eastern
Database: eBook Collection (EBSCOhost)
FullText Links:
  – Type: ebook-pdf
  – Type: ebook-epub
Text:
  Availability: 0
Header DbId: nlebk
DbLabel: eBook Collection (EBSCOhost)
An: 673648
RelevancyScore: 1031
AccessLevel: 6
PubType: eBook
PubTypeId: ebook
PreciseRelevancyScore: 1031.17456054688
IllustrationInfo
ImageInfo – Size: thumb
  Target: https://rps2images.ebscohost.com/rpsweb/othumb?id=NL$673648$PDF&s=r
– Size: medium
  Target: https://rps2images.ebscohost.com/rpsweb/othumb?id=NL$673648$PDF&s=d
Items – Name: Title
  Label: Title
  Group: Ti
  Data: The Greengrocer and His TV : The Culture of Communism After the 1968 Prague Spring
– Name: Abstract
  Label: Description
  Group: Ab
  Data: The 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia brought an end to the Prague Spring and its promise of'socialism with a human face.'Before the invasion, Czech reformers had made unexpected use of television to advance political and social change. In its aftermath, Communist Party leaders employed the medium to achieve'normalization,'pitching television stars against political dissidents in a televised spectacle that defined the times. The Greengrocer and His TV offers a new cultural history of communism from the Prague Spring to the Velvet Revolution that reveals how state-endorsed ideologies were played out on television, particularly through soap opera-like serials. In focusing on the small screen, Paulina Bren looks to the'normal'of normalization, to the everyday experience of late communism. The figure central to this book is the greengrocer who, in a seminal essay by Václav Havel, symbolized the ordinary citizen who acquiesced to the communist regime out of fear. Bren challenges simplistic dichotomies of fearful acquiescence and courageous dissent to dramatically reconfigure what we know, or think we know, about everyday life under communism in the 1970s and 1980s. Deftly moving between the small screen, the street, and the Central Committee (and imaginatively drawing on a wide range of sources that include television shows, TV viewers'letters, newspapers, radio programs, the underground press, and the Communist Party archives), Bren shows how Havel's greengrocer actually experienced'normalization'and the ways in which popular television serials framed this experience. Now back by popular demand, socialist-era serials, such as The Woman Behind the Counter and The Thirty Adventures of Major Zeman, provide, Bren contends, a way of seeing—literally and figuratively—Czechoslovakia's normalization and Eastern Europe's real socialism.
– Name: Author
  Label: Authors
  Group: Au
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Paulina+Bren%22">Paulina Bren</searchLink>
– Name: TypePub
  Label: Resource Type
  Group: TypPub
  Data: eBook.
– Name: Subject
  Label: Subjects
  Group: Su
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Communism+and+culture--Czechoslovakia--History--20th+century%22">Communism and culture--Czechoslovakia--History--20th century</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Political+culture--Czechoslovakia--History--20th+century%22">Political culture--Czechoslovakia--History--20th century</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Television+and+politics--Czechoslovakia--History--20th+century%22">Television and politics--Czechoslovakia--History--20th century</searchLink>
– Name: SubjectBISAC
  Label: Categories
  Group: Su
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22HISTORY+%2F+Europe+%2F+Eastern%22">HISTORY / Europe / Eastern</searchLink>
PLink https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=nlebk&AN=673648
RecordInfo BibRecord:
  BibEntity:
    Classifications:
      – Code: 943.7043
        Scheme: ddc
        Type: prePub
    Languages:
      – Code: eng
        Text: English
    Subjects:
      – SubjectFull: Communism and culture--Czechoslovakia--History--20th century
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Political culture--Czechoslovakia--History--20th century
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Television and politics--Czechoslovakia--History--20th century
        Type: general
    Titles:
      – TitleFull: The Greengrocer and His TV : The Culture of Communism After the 1968 Prague Spring
        Type: main
  BibRelationships:
    HasContributorRelationships:
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Paulina Bren
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Paulina Bren
    IsPartOfRelationships:
      – BibEntity:
          Dates:
            – D: 01
              M: 01
              Type: published
              Y: 2010
            – D: 04
              M: 02
              Type: profile
              Y: 2014
          Identifiers:
            – Type: isbn-print
              Value: 9780801447679
            – Type: isbn-print
              Value: 9780801476426
            – Type: isbn-electronic
              Value: 9780801462146
            – Type: isbn-electronic
              Value: 9780801462153
          Titles:
            – TitleFull: The Greengrocer and His TV : The Culture of Communism After the 1968 Prague Spring
              Type: main
ResultId 1