ABSTRACT
This chapter reveals how family stories about the past operate at the intersection of inner family processes and outer systems such as a national hegemonic discourse about the past. Based on three-generational family stories recounted about the period of communism, this chapter goes beyond demonstrating a critical position of a one-sided hegemonic discourse about the past within the process of transmission of social-political values in families. It strives to show how family relations, family legacies and the hegemonic discourse about the past are intertwined. Arguing for a complex interdisciplinary approach towards the study of family memory, this chapter demonstrates in which ways the stories of family persecution under communist rule may become the sources of family resilience and facilitate a smooth transmission of family legacy to younger generations. On the other hand, family stories immersed in nostalgia, opposing the national discourse, may complicate not only the ambiance in families and relationship between generations, but also a smooth transmission of family legacy to the families’ offspring.
