(2007) The 'Dissidents' as a Synecdoche and Western Construct: A Fresh Look on the Democratic Opposition in Central Europe Before 1989 (original) (raw)

Abstract

This essay discusses the often used, but rarely problematized category of a political “dissident”. It looks at the roots of the term in the context of Central-Eastern Europe before the democratic revolutions of 1989. The main suggestion is that the analytical concept of “oppositionists” or “dissenters” differs from the idiomatic and politically charged category of “dissidents”. The latter is a political-rhetorical figure, playing a special bridging role on the artificially created, but effectively existing West-East divide. The problem with “dissidents” is their symbolic reception as a synecdoche of the repressed societies. This complicated relationship between the prominent oppositionists, the authorities and the West is seen as the reason for the failure of many political and cultural “dissident” projects after the end of the Cold War.

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