LEADER 03555nam 2200601 a 450 001 9910827705303321 005 20230725015844.0 010 $a1-282-91643-2 010 $a9786612916434 010 $a0-299-24893-3 035 $a(CKB)2560000000054156 035 $a(EBL)3445132 035 $a(OCoLC)699513578 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000439969 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11288443 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000439969 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10465325 035 $a(PQKB)11043534 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC3445132 035 $a(MdBmJHUP)muse12027 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL3445132 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10432120 035 $a(CaONFJC)MIL291643 035 $a(EXLCZ)992560000000054156 100 $a20100323d2010 uy e 101 0 $aeng 135 $aur|n|---||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 14$aThe mystifications of a nation $e"the potato bug" and other essays on Czech culture /$fVladimi?r Macura ; translated and edited by Hana Pi?chova? and Craig Cravens 210 $aMadison, Wis. $cUniversity of Wisconsin Press$dc2010 215 $a1 online resource (xxvi, 139 pages) $cillustrations 300 $aDescription based upon print version of record. 311 1 $a0-299-24894-1 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index. 327 $apt. 1. The nineteenth century : genesis of a nation -- pt. 2. The joyous age : reflections on Czechoslovak communism. 330 $aA keen observer of culture, Czech writer Vladimi?r Macura (1945-99) devoted a lifetime to illuminating the myths that defined his nation. The Mystifications of a Nation, the first book-length translation of Macura's work in English, offers essays deftly analyzing a variety of cultural phenomena that originate, Macura argues, in the "big bang" of the nineteenth-century Czech National Revival, with its celebration of a uniquely Czech identity. In reflections on two centuries of Czech history, he ponders the symbolism in daily life. Bridges, for example-once a force of civilization connecting diverse peoples-became a sign of destruction in World War I. Turning to the Soviet and post-Soviet eras, Macura probes a range of richly symbolic practices, from the naming of the Prague metro system, to the mass gymnastic displays of the Communist period, to post-Velvet Revolution preoccupations with the national anthem. In "The Potato Bug," he muses on one of the stranger moments in the Cold War-the claim that the United States was deliberately dropping insects from airplanes to wreak havoc on the crops of Czechoslovakia. While attending to the distinctively Czech elements of such phenomena, Macura reveals the larger patterns of Soviet-brand socialism. "We were its cocreators," he declares, "and its analysis touches us as a scalpel turned on its own body." Writing with erudition, irony, and wit, Macura turns the scalpel on the authoritarian state around him, demythologizing its mythology 607 $aCzech Republic$xCivilization 607 $aCzechoslovakia$xCivilization 607 $aCzechoslovakia$xIntellectual life 607 $aCzech Republic$xIntellectual life 676 $a943.71 700 $aMacura$b Vladimi?r$f1945-1999.$01633231 701 $aPi?chova?$b Hana$f1961-$01633232 701 $aCravens$b Craig Stephen$f1965-$01633233 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910827705303321 996 $aThe mystifications of a nation$93972876 997 $aUNINA