Competing myths of Czech identity

Abstract

The article analyses the current antagonism between the Czech pro-Western liberal democratic discourse and the discourse of national sovereignty from the perspective of long-term conceptions of Czech national identity and the mythical narratives through which they have been expressed. I identify two basic mythical perspectives that have been crucial for the Czechs since the 19th century: the ‘particularist’ and the ‘universalist’. The latter originally only existed as a complement of the former, and it was not until 1968 that it was clearly expressed on its own (in its pro-Western version) in opposition to the particularist myth, eventually becoming the dominant narrative of the 1990s with their ethos of returning to the West. Once the post-revolutionary enthusiasm evaporated, however, the subsequent disillusion again came to be expressed through the particularist myth. While at present the universalist myth might seem as superior to the particularist one, from the perspective of theories of nationalism, both have their bright and dark sides, and it is only due to their present-day opposition that the particularist myth has taken the illiberal turn. A critical reflection of the limitations of both myths might allow us to soften their antagonism.