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Post-Socialist Political Necromancy: Weaponization of Dead Bodies in Czech Culture Wars

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 December 2022

Vladimír Naxera Open the ORCID record for Vladimír Naxera [Opens in a new window]  and
Petr Krčál Open the ORCID record for Petr Krčál [Opens in a new window]
Vladimír Naxera*
Affiliation:
University of West Bohemia, Plzeň, Czech Republic
Petr Krčál
Affiliation:
University of West Bohemia, Plzeň, Czech Republic
*
Corresponding author: Vladimír Naxera, email: vnaxera@kap.zcu.cz
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Abstract

This article contributes to discussions on culture wars, memory politics, and the politics of dead bodies. It uses the example of the annual celebration of the liberation of the city of Pilsen by the American army in 1945 to demonstrate the use of the concept of “political necromancy.” The Pilsen celebrations are one of the events during which participating politicians use fallen (or suffering) soldiers as an argument to support current political goals. Metaphorically, the politician as a necromancer brings the fallen back to life and sends them as an army of the dead to fight in culture wars and memory wars. The article focuses on introducing the different strategies used in this process (depersonalizing the fallen or creating a ghost hero) and shows how dead bodies and the appropriate use of memory politics are used to bolster foreign policy ties to the US and to lash out against Russia and communism.

Keywords

politics of dead bodiesuse of historycollective memoryculture warspost-socialism
Type
Article
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 52 , Issue 2 , March 2024 , pp. 321 - 336
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for the Study of Nationalities

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