Publication details
Politická komunikace v příbězích zneuctěných památníků
| Title in English | Political Communication Narrated in Vandalising Monuments |
|---|---|
| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2013 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Sociální studia |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | http://socstudia.fss.muni.cz/ |
| Field | Sociology, demography |
| Keywords | visual; remembrance; memory narratives; conflicting interpretations; political ideologies; public space; monuments; countermemorials; demonstration; counterdemonstration; desecration; narrated story |
| Description | We analyse visual narratives in our article, related to the desecration of two public monuments in Budapest, Hungary. We embed these narratives within the framework of the change in the usage and interpretation of public space and its monuments that came by democratic transition and modern technology, accompanied by new forms of reinforcement and challenging of legitimate memory narratives. We analyse two video footages that were taken in two demonstrations at different monuments, both of them placed near Kossuth square. The square is where the houses of Parliament is standing and through its changing statues and monuments it has a central role in creating, maintaining and replacing memory narratives of Hungarian history. The two monuments, the demonstrations and counter-demonstrations in the focus of our observation are part of a political power game about these narratives. When analysing the video footages we treat them as narrated stories, observe the different layers such as the interpretation of the producers, as well as – unfolding the level of the ‘exact events’ – the interpretations of the demonstrators and the audience of the footages who interpret the footages online). In the first case we analyse video footages of a demonstration organised by supporters of the extreme-right party, desecrating the statue of Mihály Károlyi, a Hungarian politician between the two world-wars. In the second case we analyse videos of a counter-demonstration organised by anti-fascist organisations and private individuals at a countermemorial “Shoes on the Danube Promenade” that commemorates victims and calls attention to societal responsibility during the Shoah. The memorial was desecrated by unknown perpetrators who placed pigs’ feet into the shoes. We analyse a counterdemostration to the desecration that took place at the memorial and analyze the different perspectives appearing in videoclips of it. |
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