GHI2019 Leaders, Cults and Trauma

Recorded July 15, 2019. Professor Nebojša Blanuša (University of Zagreb) and Professor Balázs Apor (Trinity College Dublin) examine the role of various carriers of influence—political, military and religious leaders—as potential sources of cultural trauma. Leaders are often described as the main characters in the narratives of cultural trauma, and can assume simultaneously, the status of villains as well as heroes. The panel explores such opposite imaginations, their dynamics and political effects. The speakers also address the cultic veneration of leaders (modern dictators) and the way such cults were developed and promoted with the aim of diminishing the impact of perceived historical traumas (collapse of empire, war, genocide, etc.). Learn more at: https://www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub/