Cervinkova, Hana (2009) The Phantom of the Good Soldier Švejk in the Czech Army Accession to NATO (2001-2002). International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, 22 (3). pp. 359-371. ISSN 0891-4486

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Abstract

The article is based on the author's ethnographic fieldwork in the Czech Armed Forces (2001-2002) in which she focused on the process of military professionalization?a set of extensive institutional reforms initiated upon the Czech Republic's accession to NATO. She shows that these reforms were not limited to the military sector and involved efforts on the part of the state officials and the media to change the position of the military in the public sphere and culture. The goal of these changes was to bring the image of seriousness to the discredited Czech military, a process that demanded the obliteration of the cultural idiom of Svejk?a literary hero of the 1920s novel by Jaroslav HaSek and the representation of a peaceful resistance to war and military violence. In the course of the twentieth century, Svejk has become one of the most pervasive cultural references of the popular laughter at oppressive military power and has been a leading cultural idiom for the Czechs during the 30 years of German and Soviet military occupations. The article shows how the current official efforts at changing the image of the Czech military focus on the obliteration of Svejk's cultural idiom, bringing him so frequently to the public discourse that they produce a phantom-like effect in which Svejk has come to haunt the process directed at his expurgation. The established cultural idiom of skepticism toward the army and military bureaucracy thus challenges the transition from communism to democracy and questions the reliance on military force, the imagery of violent conflicts, and just wars as necessary tools of politics.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	Military; Svejk; Professionalization; Postcommunist transformation; NATO;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Anthropology
Item ID:	12757
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1007/sl0767-009-9063-y
Depositing User:	Hana Cervinkova
Date Deposited:	16 Apr 2020 13:42
Journal or Publication Title:	International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society
Publisher:	Springer
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	Publisher
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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