ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to provide a comparative analysis of the shared conceptual platform of post-1968 anti-political thinking in Central Europe, by the reading of key essays by Vaclav Havel, Adam Michnik, and Gyorgy Konrad. It argues that the period between the crushed reforms of 1968 and the revolutions of 1989 was marked by theories of dissent which were based on a conscious rejection of the idea of practicing formal politics. Anti-politics in Central Europe shared an inherent drive with all non-revolutionary dissident thought around the globe: the opposition to the state and its totalizing institutional reach. The chapter shows that – although power dynamics, cultural traditions, and political events were different for each country in Central Europe – in the period between the crushed reforms of 1968 and the revolutions of 1989, the self-identification of dissident movements was based on an explicit move away from the idea of practicing traditional politics.
