Public lecture: Humour as a weapon in crisis and war
We are pleased to invite you to the public lecture Humour as a weapon in crisis and war, presented by Tetiana Kovalenko (V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Ukraine & German Historical Institute in Warsaw, Poland), which will take place on Wednesday 26 April 2023 at 6 p.m. at the Hybernská Campus (Hybernská 4, Prague, Čítárna HYB4) and will be held in English. The meeting is organized by the Institute of Contemporary History CAS, the Institute of History SAS and the Leibniz-Institute for History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO).
Internet memes about the Russia-Ukraine war which began on February 24, 2022 have spread online rapidly. Are they important? What influence do memes have in public space and on public opinion? How do they contribute to the process of shaping historical memory and creating new historical symbols? Do memes interact with politics and can they be considered a weapon in times of war? These questions will be answered by Dr. Tetiana Kovalenko (Uni Kharkhov – DHI Varsaw) based on the analysis of publicly available sites and channels of Ukrainian officials, volunteers and civic activists mainly on Facebook and Telegram. Dr. Petra Hudek (Institute of Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences – Institute of History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences) will follow with a reflection on humour in the streets of Czechoslovak cities after the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968. At the end, doc. Petr Janeček (Institute of Ethnology of the Faculty of Arts, Charles University – Centre for Study of Popular Culture) will add some theoretical reflections on the role of humour in the social crisis. The lecture will be followed by a discussion with audience.
Moderated by: Dr. Lucie Dušková (Leibniz-Institute for History and Culture of Eastern Europe).
