Publication Details

Abstract

The study examines the concept of the “contemporaneity of the noncontemporaneous” in the context of Slovak and Czechoslovak history, with a special focus on the revolutionary year 1989. Building on Reinhart Koselleck’s theory of temporal layers and Ernst Bloch’s notion of Ungleichzeitigkeit, the article argues that Czech and Slovak history cannot be understood within a single homogeneous present, but only as an interplay of multiple temporalities. Using a constructivist methodology and Hayden White’s narrative theory, it analyses how center-periphery relations, generational experiences and different regimes of memory produce conflicting interpretations of the Velvet Revolution. The study shows that these divergent narratives are not marginal deviations, but the normal outcome of structurally nonsimultaneous historical experiences. In conclusion, it reflects on how such temporal plurality shapes values, political attitudes and the ongoing contestation of the meaning of 1989 in public memory.