La reconfiguration des récits postsocialistes de Nowa Huta (Pologne) et de Dunaújváros (Hongrie)

Abstract

This article examines the changing narratives of two postsocialist cities: Nowa Huta in Poland and Dunaújváros in Hungary. By comparing the post-1989 narratives of these two planned socialist towns, I argue that the current presentations of their socialist heritage reflect the changing post-1989 narratives of Polish and Hungarian identity. Nowa Huta’s story has become transformed from a crude communist imposition to suppress anti-communist feelings in Polish society to a place that, instead, fought with the system in order to remain Catholic and that strongly participated in Poland’s struggle for independence in the 1980s. Similarly, Dunaújváros has been transformed from ‘the ugliest city in Hungary’ constructed during the period of forced industrialization to what is now a modern city with two thousand years of history, including its Roman and medieval past, ultimately fulfilling the dreams about economic independence of Hungarian patriots of the 19th century. As such, both cities are successfully repositioning their ‘unwanted past’ within the broader context of changing national narratives.