Abstract
The stories of those who lost their lives or were subject to different kinds of damage for political reasons during Soviet-governed communist rule in Czechoslovakia (1948-1989), a system not unlike colonisation, have long been unheard. As Vaclav Havel argues in his essay Stories and Totalitarianism, due to institutionalised rationale of history, Czechoslovakian society experienced absence of story, indeed a destruction of the story altogether. This paper will focus on oral narratives of so-called Daughters of Enemy, daughters of long-incarcerated or executed prisoners. What are these women's views of trauma experienced by whole culture and do these formerly persecuted individuals now perceive their experiences as a meaningful achievement? Does society provide them with a feeling of satisfaction and/or fulfillment by hearing and/or responding to their voices while successfully coping with trauma of culture as a whole, as was case, for e.g. in South Africa vis- a-vis its former political prisoners? Or is there (still) one kind or other of a (power-motivated) perpetuation of absence of the story?. This paper will attempt to address these and other questions within context of Havel's aforementioned essay.
Highlights
The stories of those who lost their lives or were subject to different kinds of damage for political reasons during Soviet-governed communist rule in Czechoslovakia (1948-1989), a system not unlike colonisation, have long been unheard
There are different and varied aspects of how the identity of geographic or geopolitical entities can be traced, conceived or defined. One such example is the so called Soviet bloc, in which the governing of countries like Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and others was subject to direct control from Moscow
What is generally referred to as a Soviet-style and Soviet-governed communist regime started in Czechoslovakia in 1948
Summary
The stories of those who lost their lives or were subject to different kinds of damage for political reasons during Soviet-governed communist rule in Czechoslovakia (1948-1989), a system not unlike colonisation, have long been unheard. The members of this organisation are daughters of former political prisoners who associate with one another with the aim of “educat[ing] younger generations about life under totalitarianism to prevent history from repeating itself in our country or anywhere else” (Daughters).
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