CEFRES Team, Non classé

Valentin Auger – Research & CV

“The Quest for a Lost Meaning: Work and Workers in Late Socialist Czechoslovakia. A Story of Flying Literature”

 Contact: valentin.auger[@]ff.cuni.cz

Research Area : 1

My doctoral research focuses on the notion of meaning in the work experienced by workers in socialist Czechoslovakia in the 1970s and 1980s. It is being carried out at the Institute of Economic and Social History (ÚHSD) of the Faculty of Arts, Charles University.

The aim of my research project is to analyse feelings, perceptions and experiences of work in normalized Czechoslovakia through the prism of meaningfullness (and by extension well-being) at work. The aim is to use contemporary philosophy, sociology and psychology to analyse a historical period known for its lack of meaning, in order to shed light on today’s realities in the light of yesterday. Indeed, I propose to draw a parallel between the period of the so-called Normalization in Czechoslovakia and the period of “hypernormalization” (Yurchak, 2004; Curtis, 2016) we are experiencing. To reach these intimate realities, which are the feelings of meaningfullness at work, I have chosen as a main medium contemporary Czechoslovak literature published in France (novels, short stories, theatre, poetry). By choosing translated literature, I intend to bypass the Czechoslovak censorship bodies, to establish a sample of literature, supposedly the best, the most popular, as well as to obtain an outside view from a non-socialist society.

On the one hand, I apply contemporary theories of work mixed with literary theories to the period of Czechoslovak normalization in order to renew the way in which we look at it. On the other hand, I use these same literatures in this unique context to develop contemporary theories and debate work in our societies today.

 CV

Training

  • 2022-, doctoral studies, Institute of Economic and Social History (ÚHSD), Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Czech Republic. 
  • Doctoral thesis under the supervision of Jakub Rákosník & Lucie Dušková, The Quest for a Lost Meaning: Work and Workers in Late Socialist Czechoslovakia. A Story of Flying Literature.  
  • 2020-2022, Master in History, University of Caen Normandie, France.
  • Research dissertation supervised by Anna Trespeuch-Berthelot, Les Cahiers de l’Est: écritures d’exils et exils d’écritures (1973-1980). 
  • 2020, History degree, University of Caen Normandie, France.
  • 2017-2019, Classes Préparatoires aux Grandes Écoles, specialising in History and Theatre Studies (Hypokhâgne/Khâgne), Lycée Malherbe, Caen, France. 

Teaching experience

  • 2023-2024, French teacher, Berlitz, Prague. 

Communications

  • “Post-mining sites: The Green Gold Rush”, Sustainable land use – ecosystem restoration on marginal land, 4EU+ Collegio Futuro Training, Autumn School, Heidelberg, January 2024. 
  • “History and Literature, For A Historical Study of Contemporary Literary Texts”, Doctoral Seminar, Institute of Economic and Social History, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, December 2023. 
  • “D-Day and its traces in Normandy: between memory, leisure, and business”, The Route of Memory, International Student of History Association (ISHA) Summer Seminar, Prague, August 2023.  
  • “Work as an identity in The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera”, Good Work Seminar, GWZO, Leipzig, June 2023. 

Publications

  • “Une Europe sans frontière est-elle imaginable? La revue littéraire des Cahiers de l’Est: transferts dans une Europe scindée (1973-1980)”, Revue d’Histoire culturelle, 2024. https://journals.openedition.org/rhc/7021 
  • Les Cahiers de l’Est: écritures d’exils et exils d’écritures (1973-1980), master’s thesis directed by Anna Trespeuch-Berthelot, University of Caen Normandie, 2022. https://dumas.ccsd.cnrs.fr/dumas-04079649v1  
  • “Les Cahiers de l’Est (1975-1980)”, DISSinvent, modified on 6 June 2021. [Online]. https://lcbam.hypotheses.org/981