The Husák government that came into power after the suppression of the Prague Spring formulated
the goal of restoring normality in Czechoslovakia. It revoked prior reforms and initiated
widespread cleansing measures and repression. Most notably however it lacked a clear vision
for the future. The contributions in this volume show that the 1970s and 1980s were
nevertheless not a time of complete stagnation. Efforts at restoration and modernization
frequently existed simultaneously and counteractively. The essays discuss this
contradictoriness and the often invisible dynamics of the normalization period exemplarily. A
further key topic is the normalization's echo in literature remembrance culture and
historiography.
