Národní paměť, lidové tradice a vytváření moderní české národní identity v Brně
| Title in English | National memory, folk traditions and the formation of the modern Czech national identity in Brno |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2009 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | In this chapter the author observes the formation of collective national identity as a creation of memory, collectively shared and intergenerationally transmitted memory of a common past and culture, an image of that which we regard as ours. She focuses on national memory, which in the modern period offered a new collective identity to large groups and accompanied the emergence of the modern nations and their mutual differentiation. In this national memory a place which was important in the context of the time was held by folk culture, or by national reflection, interpretation and use of folk culture. This had two forms: (1) folklorism and (2) the image of folk culture which ethnologists constructed creatively and in a subjectivist manner typical of the time. The author analyses this topic on the basis of material from Brno; the time period which she deals with is from the end of the 18th century to the first third of the 20th. She comes to the conclusion that both of the above-distinguished forms of folk memory played their parts in the formation of the modern Czech identity in Brno. She interprets the early and intensive interest in folk culture in this city in connection with the ethnically mixed composition of the citys inhabitants (Czechs and Germans). During the most important period of patriotic agitation Brnos main proponents, creators and disseminators of memorable folk expressions were the Vesna society (by introducing the propagation of folk traditions into school tuition, and by means of social and cultural events, ethnographic exhibitions and museum activity) and Lucia Bakešová (through field surveys, reconstructions and scenic presentations of customs). The Brno patriots were familiar with Herders thinking, and they found their orientation in the contemporary European promotion of nationally-committed exhibitions and in museum activities. Sometimes they received stimuli from the Prague and Olomouc centres. Aspects of folk culture also formed part of the cultural events which the town societies organised. Early attempts at the creation of national holidays were the Cyril and Methodius and Palacký celebrations. Nor did Brno lag behind in the foundation of repositories of national memory (the ethnographic museum). The author notes the weakening of the role of folk memory in the formation of Czech national identity and culture from 1900, when it came to be used in Brno principally for purposes of public display and culture-entertainment. The national commitment Summaries of ethnologists had fulfilled its mission and exhausted its potential as early as 1895 and thereafter gave way to their standard professional activity. |