Podcast Summary: New Books Network — Lucy Jeffery and Anna Váradi on "Replaying Communism: Trauma and Nostalgia in European Cultural Production" (CEU Press, 2025)

Episode Overview

This episode features host Andrea in conversation with Lucy Jeffery and Anna Váradi, editors of Replaying Communism: Trauma and Nostalgia in European Cultural Production. The discussion centers on how contemporary cultural production in Central and Eastern Europe continues to grapple with the legacy of the communist era, exploring themes of trauma, nostalgia, memory, intergenerational perspectives, and the ongoing relevance of communist history in shaping current identity and politics.

Main Discussion Points & Insights

1. Backgrounds of the Editors and Motivations

• Anna Váradi:

  • Background in media studies with a focus on television's engagement with history.
  • Personal connection as a Hungarian born and raised post-communism; experienced “post-socialist” childhood activities and artifacts (e.g., a 1962 children’s book, the board game “Gozdako Yokoshan – Spend Wisely” described as “socialist Monopoly”).
  • Academic interest led to televising the socialist era in Hungary and founding the project with Lucy.
  • “I had this rhyming children’s book … but only as an adult did I put two and two together, that one of the other children... is a Korean girl … this connects the communist links between the two countries.” (03:00)

• Lucy Jeffery:

  • Arts and humanities background (literature, theatre, cultural studies).
  • British, but with personal and academic connections in Central and Eastern Europe, including research on Hungarian literature and reflections on lived experiences (e.g., driving a Trabant in Berlin).
  • Interest in how communism affects family dynamics and everyday life.
  • “I have the personal connections from Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary. They're making me think about what I was experiencing and seeing through an academic lens.” (05:03)

2. Design and Symbolism of the Book Cover

• The cover features:
  • A bright red background with a Trabant (East German car) centered.
  • EU stars mixed with a hammer and sickle.
  • Cover photo is personal—taken after the editors’ nerve-wracking drive in Berlin.
  • “We wanted those flags to bleed together … the Trabbi to hit us dead on... just to convey the impact, the real impact that the communist era is having on the region today.” (08:55)

3. Genesis and Concept of the Project

• Research grounded in site visits and practitioner interviews:

  • Funded research trips across Central and Eastern Europe (museums, archives, meeting political figures).
  • Website with resources and blog, symposium, and collaborative call for chapters.
  • “We visited archives, museums ... met a lot of practitioners. And that really formed the basis of the project.” (11:35)

• What “Replaying Communism” Means:

  • Not just retelling or repeating the past, but re-engaging, often via contemporary, interactive mediums (board/video games, exhibitions).
  • Example: Younger generations interact with history via games that allow new imaginative relationships to the past.
  • “We use that word because we don't mean repeated; we mean re-engaged with.” (14:54)

4. Themes and Structure of the Volume

• Trauma-Nostalgia Paradigm:

  • Chapters explore coexistence of trauma (collective pain, guilt, repression) and nostalgia (childhood memories, cultural artifacts).
  • “Nostalgia and trauma are best understood as coexisting forces that shape contemporary engagement with the past.” (20:35)
  • Svetlana Alexievich: “The Soviet Union no longer exists, but the Soviet person remains.” (19:11)

• Range of Case Studies:

  • Museum curation (e.g., Lithuania’s Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights and Grutas Park).
  • German radio drama and the interplay of post-memory, silence, and intergenerational transmission (Marianne Hirsch).
  • Comic books, performance art, joke forums, documentaries, and games from various nations.

5. Analysis of Trauma and Nostalgia in Museums and Media

• Museums as Contested Spaces:

  • Blend of traumatic memory sites (e.g., former prisons) and commodified nostalgia (canteens, exhibits).
  • “Nostalgia is much easier to commodify and sell. But the museum itself and its exhibits can't separate the impression of nostalgia from the experience of trauma.” (28:37)

• Media’s Role in Shaping Memory:

  • TV series like “Abechugo” (“The Informant”) and “Deutschland 89” as examples of how media both reflect and shape generational understanding.
  • Challenge of historical accuracy versus emotional/lived truth.
  • “Culture can tell us so much more about the experience of a specific period than historical fact alone.” (47:05)

6. Generational Differences and Intergenerational Memory

• Not Homogenizing Experiences:
  • The book brings together authors native to, or with expertise in, different countries to ensure nuanced takes.
  • Explores transmissions of trauma and nostalgia between generations: old hesitancies and silences vs. young people’s proactive exploration.
  • “Younger generations are almost grasping and trying to get this information to learn from history for their own situation.” (41:59)
  • Online forums, performance art, and graphic novels as arenas of intergenerational dialogue (and sometimes exclusion).

7. Political Context and Ongoing Relevance

• Link to Current Political Divides:

  • The communist past replayed in cultural production is intertwined with present-day populism, illiberal democracy, and far-right politics.
  • Concerns for democratic backsliding, censorship, and press freedom in former communist countries.

• Intellectual Conclusions:

  • Draws on Timothy Garton Ash (stages of European history: post-war, post-wall, post-Western) and Gerard Delanty (plurality, interconnected narratives, “new voices”) to envision a pluralistic pan-European future.
  • “The more of these pasts… are being replayed in contemporary culture, the more opportunities these countries and these societies basically have to articulate the political turmoil, the traumas … as well as during the transition and then even today with this new rise of extremism and far right.” (34:09)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Nostalgia and Trauma:

  • “The Soviet Union no longer exists, but the Soviet person remains.” – Svetlana Alexievich, quoted by Lucy Jeffrey (19:11)
  • “That notion that trauma and nostalgia are two sides of the same coin is really relevant in each of them.” – Lucy Jeffrey (21:51)

• The Book’s Cover Story:

  • “For anybody who has ever driven a Trabi, they’ll have the smells of that fuel, the cramped interior … it is totally unreliable and tends to generally drive itself.” – Lucy Jeffrey (08:02)

• Why ‘Replaying’ Communism?

  • “We don’t mean repeated; we mean re-engaged with.” – Lucy Jeffrey (14:54)

• On Historical Dramas and Accuracy:

  • “Culture can tell us so much more about the experience of a specific period than historical fact alone.” – Lucy Jeffrey (47:05)
  • “My mum … would always say something like, well, our university dorms weren’t as big and comfortable or we didn’t have as much choice of food in the canteen… she nitpicked the historical accuracy, but she also loved it.” – Anna Váradi (50:04)

• Implication for Today:

  • “We saw that it's based on a premise of being different to rather than allied. But then we thought... we also have all of this cultural production and we didn't want to think of it in only this downbeat tone.” – Lucy Jeffrey (32:12)

Important Timestamps

• [01:58] Anna and Lucy introduce backgrounds; childhood experience with socialist-era games/books
• [06:25] Discussion of the book’s cover and the symbolism of the Trabant and mixed flags
• [11:09] Description of the origins of the project and title "Replaying Communism"
• [18:17] Brief thematic overview of chapters in the volume
• [19:11] Introduction of “trauma-nostalgia paradigm” and Alexievich’s quote
• [21:51] Book’s structural approach: trauma and nostalgia as coexisting
• [24:41] Analysis of silence and “oral landscapes” in radio drama (Germany)
• [27:44] Reconciling nostalgia and trauma in museum curation
• [29:11] Lithuanian museum chapter and broader trauma/nostalgia interplay
• [35:13] Generational differences in memory and experience
• [41:14] Effects of politics and freedom of expression on memory production
• [46:13] "Replaying" the past through TV and historical inaccuracy vs. engagement (focus on "Abechugo")
• [53:16] Upcoming book tour, conferences, and how listeners can learn more

Where to Learn More

• Website: Project site with blog and contact form; seeking collaborators.
• Upcoming Appearances: Conference talks in Gdansk, Erlangen, Cardiff, Katowice, and potentially Central European University.
• Email: replayingcommunism@mail.com (confirmed at 54:51)
• Book: Available via CEU Press (link in show notes).

Tone & Final Thoughts

The conversation is warm, personal, and reflective, blending academic rigor with anecdotes and humor. Anna and Lucy stress the complexity of post-communist memory, the challenges and possibilities of creative engagement with the past, and the importance of plurality and new voices in Europe’s cultural conversation.

“Nostalgia and trauma are always together and working, coexisting.” – Anna Váradi (21:30)

“We’re always thinking about new questions... related to our main question about the specter of communism across Europe today and its impact on ideas like democracy or its influence on culture.” – Lucy Jeffrey (55:30)

For listeners and readers alike, this episode provides an enlightening window into how cultural memory is constructed, contested, and re-imagined in today’s Europe.