The seminar addresses
alternative culture during socialism in East and Southeast Europe. We will expand
our view beyond socialist realism and propaganda art towards non-conformist and
dissident cultural scenes that flourished before 1989 despite the strict
controls of the socialist regimes. By using the digital database of the COURAGE
project (cultura-opposition.eu), we will explore histories of censorship,
everyday life and exile, of non-conformist art, theatre and literature, of anti-establishment
religious movements, of civic initiatives for unofficial education and
publication, of dissident movements, underground punk and rock bands and alternative
ways of life. The examples come from the Baltic States, Czechoslovakia,
Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Poland and the GDR.