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The present study examined the phenomenon of inter‑subjective identity constructions, specifically ethnic identity constructions and their associated identifiers. This discursive creation of ethnic identity, as a specific type of collective identity, was monitored on the basis of biographic narrative interviews with the representatives of the oldest interwar and war generation of Germans and their descendants (their children and grandchildren's generation) who, after the expulsion of most of the German‑speaking population in Czechoslovakia, stayed in their country of origin for various reasons. The first part of the study can be considered a theoretical excursion introducing the essential works, concepts and theoretical approaches to the study of collective identity and collective memory. These reflections, inspired by the paradigm of social constructivism, concluded the theoretical and methodological issues showing the relationship between collective identity, memory and biographical narration. The acquired biographical perforce lead us to memory (individual and collective), which was viewed as essential to understanding ethnic identities. The participation of individuals on collectively shared knowledge about the past actually creates and maintains group solidarity, thus making up one of the important components of collective identity. Through life stories there were also manifested additional attributes used for the construction of ethnicity such as the distinct language and culture. The following section of the book is devoted to the analysis and interpretation of acquired data. Using the biographical method during the personally performed field research in the Chomutov region brought about a total of 50 recorded stories from the biographical narratives of representatives of three successive generations of Czech Germans. The study primarily captures the collectively shared images of the past and important identifying attributes which formed the ethnic identity of the protagonists of the oldest interwar generation of this community. The study has clarified, as narrators themselves re‑constructed and re‑interpreted, their subjectively experienced “us” and at the same time how they defined themselves against the non‑members of the “others” group. Apparently, because of its traumatic potential, the group most intensely preserved the memories from the period before and after wartime. The inter‑subjective experience of this historical period and its stigmatizing aspect could thus be understood as one of the main attributes of collective memory and identity of this generational group, which is still coping with the collective trauma of perpetrators and victims. Despite this potential stigma, the German identity is seen by the narrators as an immutable and primordially given entity and their identification is derived from German language and ethnicity. Furthermore, the study discusses the intergenerational transmission of ethnic and linguistic identity from the oldest generation of Czech Germans on their offspring. To this end, the biographies of protagonists of the following two generational groups became the subject of analysis and interpretation. This examination of intergenerational relationships revealed how and through what the narrators discursively created their own ethnic identity and what level of importance their ancestors'ethnic and linguistic knowledge has reached during this process. While the German ethno‑cultural identity was fixed and internalized in case of the interwar generation, we identified both ethnic and language shifts in the Czech direction in case of the younger generations, where the transition from German to Czech identity consisted of a central “socialist” generation. The fundamental factors for the diversion from German Identity proved to be the mixed marriages, dominating the Czech environment and, in terms of the communist regime, the low prestige of German identity and language. Assimilation res |
