METAPHORS OF THE NATURAL AND THE ARTIFICIAL IN CZECH POLITICAL DISCOURSE

Legitimation of the new post-socialist order and of the post-socialist states is an important part of the process of transformation of the f ormer socialist countries. The article concentrates on one particular aspect of this process in the Czech republic: the legitimation of the creation of an independent Czech state and of the particular way in wh ich it was created. It does so by analysing the discourse about Czech statehood which emerged after the fall of the communist regime in Czec hoslovakia in 1989 and which gained prominence after the elections in 1992. It is argued that the discourse gained persuasive power because it drew effectively on various premisses of Czech culture, particularl y on the conceptual dichotomy between 'the naturally constituted' and 'the artificially created'. The attention paid to the invocation of sh ared cultural meanings, and to the key metaphors and symbols through w hich they are expressed, can link specifically anthropological concern s with those of the other social sciences engaged in the study of the major social change currently taking place in post-socialist countries .