Authors

Andrew Roach¹; John M. Bates³; Zsuzsanna Varga³; Jonathan Shepard²; Mirna Solić³;  ¹ University of Glasgow, UK;  ² University of Oxford, UK;  ³ University of Glasgow, UK

Discussion

This session will look at the uses of the past in C19 and C20 Central and Eastern Europe, although there will be no formal papers, subjects will include:
'Revisiting Constantinople: Ottomans in fiction and history in C19 Hungary (Varga)
'966 and all that: Polish medieval history in post-war official discourse (1945-70)' (Bates)
'Constructing false realities: filming Jan Hus as a proto-Marxist xenophobe'(Culik)
'The Middle Ages as hope for the future: reconciling tradition and modernity in Sadoveanu' (Roach). 

From looking at academic history, fiction and film the close relationship between popular perceptions of the past and contemporary politics emerges in both positive and negative perspectives.