Ústav pro soudobé dějiny AV ČR, v.v.i.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being Queer in State Socialism

The Unbearable Lightness of Being Queer in State Socialism
Dan Healey, University of Oxford

• Date: September 17, 5.30 p.m.
• Venue: The Parliamentary Library and The Archives of the Chamber of Deputies, Komunardů 1634/44, 170 00 Prague 7 Holešovice
• Organised by: German Historical Institute Warsaw (DHIW) – Prague Branch, Institute of Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague (ÚSD), The Parliamentary Library and The Archives of the Chamber of Deputies, Society for Queer Memory, Prague

Was queerness lived differently in Central and East-Central Europe? Healey explores this question using Kundera’s 1984 novel as a springboard for reflection. What unites the cases explored in this workshop – was it Communist violence and surveillance, Habsburg and other imperial legacies, a European spirit or sensibility, or the 20’s Century history of political and economic catastrophe? Why was socialist modernity sometimes capacious enough to make some forms of queerness viable, while at other times, or indeed at the same time, it drove queer lives underground?

Registration for the lecture is available HERE.

ID is required upon entering the building.