‘The Counter Lady’ as a Female Prototype: Prime Time Popular Culture in 1970s and 1980s Czechoslovakia

TV serials became the most important genre of the popular culture in Czechoslovakia during the period of so-called normalisation – the 1970s and the 1980s. The new post invasion regime shifted the propagandistic emphasis to the popular culture sphere and thus TV serials became a space, where the conscientiously controlled dominant ideology met the mindsets and opinions of the audience. The paper deals with the role of popular culture in the late socialist society, particularly its participation in the process of reaching a consensus between the communist authorities and subordinated citizens. How the consensus was created through a restricted consumer lifestyle is discussed. Adding to this is shown the institutional frame of the popular culture’s production and function. It is related to the fundamental question of the applicability of cultural studies concepts and theories to the situation of socialist societies. The remainder of the paper focuses attention on the analysis of one of the most popular period TV serials ‘Žena za pultem’ in a broader period context as a useful tool to study gender relations represented by a period idea of socialist emancipation. It shows the division of characters and the function of communist festivities as examples of a manifested larger system of cultural beliefs mediated in the serials. The final part emphasises Žena za pultem as a typical soap opera with its characteristics that introduces an ideal world, where all significant inadequacies experienced in day-to-day living are solved. The main character of the TV serials represents an ideal socialist woman to promote the conception of the socialist way of women’s emancipation. The role of the both genders is discussed in closing.