CENTRAL EUROPEAN CULTURE AND SOCIETY

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1 CENTRAL EUROPEAN CULTURE AND SOCIETY (CESP/CECS) SYLLABUS FOR THE ACADEMIC YEAR FALL SEMESTER Lecturer: Hynek Melichar Office Hours: Tue 14:15-15:15, Wed 15:45-16:45 (office no. 3.19, DPES, 3 rd floor) Selected Tuesdays (see dates below!), 15:45-18:15 at 106 lecture room, DPES, Křížkovského 12, ground floor I. THE AIM OF THE COURSE AND ITS ROLE IN THE OVERALL DEGREE CURRICULUM This one-semester course is part of the Central European Studies Program (CESP) offered by the Dpt. of Politics and European Studies. It is offered mainly to foreign students within the framework of the Erasmus/Socrates program, Euroculture degree program or to individual foreign students ("free movers"). CESP courses are in a limited way opened also to students of the DPES, and the Palacký University in general, as an optional course. The course acquaints students with chosen important and mutually interrelated aspects of politics, culture and society in East-Central Europe (mostly V4 countries) in the 20 th and 21 st centuries and puts emphasis on their reflections in cinematography. Combining lectures, discussions, readings, audio-visual materials and movie projections, this course should provide students with better understanding of selected important cultural and socio-political issues that have shaped contemporary Central Europe and its intellectual, societal, political and cultural space. The course complements, deepens understanding of, and provides for different perspectives on, some important issues and themes rising from other CESP courses (e.g. Central European History, Ethnic Minorities in CE, etc.) and stresses their mutual interconnectedness. II. METHODS The course is based largely on audio-visual material and movie projections within 2,5 hrs. class sessions. Projections are introduced by a lecture on the selected phenomena. A seminar discussion on the topic supported by assigned readings and their interpretations follows after the projection. 1

2 III. COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND EVALUATION Class participation is required, max. 2 absences are allowed per semester. Students are obliged to read assigned readings prior to each session. Student evaluation and final grade is based on active participation in seminar discussions and a written critical essay. Each student will choose one of the following topics for his/her essay: 1. Is there a common Central European culture and society? What makes it? Critically discuss. 2. Which factors and events were crucial for the shaping of contemporary Central European cultural and societal space? Critically discuss. 3. Critically analyze a movie or a literary work depicting cultural and/or societal aspects of Central Europe. The essay will follow relevant academic standards including citations and will have 6-8 pages. It will be based on student s own research with supported arguments and quotes. Students are encouraged to utilize the Central Library and internet article databases accessible via UP internal network (e.g. in the Central Library or at the dormitories). Essay submissions will be due by December 11 th 2012 in both electronic and printed copies. IV. COURSE PROGRAM INTRODUCTORY CLASS COURSE PROGRAM AND REQUIREMENTS September 18th 1 st SESSION September 25 th WHAT IS CENTRAL EUROPE? IS THERE A CENTRAL EUROPEAN IDENTITY? - Kundera, Milan The Tragedy of Central Europe. The New York Review of Books, Vol. 31, No. 7, pp Ash, Timothy Garton Does Central Europe exist?. The New York Review of Books, October 9, 1986, pp nd SESSION October 9 th JEWS IN CENTRAL EUROPE I Movie: The Sunshine, HU co-production, 1999, 181 min. (1 st part) - Tötösy de Zepetnek, Steven. Comparative Cultural Studies and the Study of Central European Culture. In Tötösy de Zepetnek, Steven. Comparative Central European Culture. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, pp o Piotrowski, Piotr In the Shadow of Yalta: Art and the Avant-garde in Eastern Europe, London: Reaktion Books, pp (Introduction). 2

3 2 nd SESSION II October 16th JEWS IN CENTRAL EUROPE II Movie: The Sunshine, HU co-production, 1999, 181 min. (2 nd part) - Suleiman, Susan Rubin Central Europe, Jewish Family History, and Sunshine. In: Tötösy de Zepetnek, Steven. Comparative Central European Culture. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, pp Gantner, Eszter B., Kovács, Mátyás. The Constructed Jew: A pragmatic approach for defining a collective Central European image of Jews. In Šiaučiunaite-Verbickiene, Jurgita and Lempertiene, Larisa (eds.) Jewish Space in Central and Eastern Europe: Day-to-Day History. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp rd SESSION October 30th SPORT, POLITICS AND SOCIETY Movie: Freedom s Fury, USA-HU, 2006, 90 min.; Communism and Football, BBC Four documentary, 59 min. - Riordan, James Impact of Communism on Sport. Historical Social Research, Vol. 32, No. 1, pp Jokisipilä, Markku Cold War on Ice. Conference Paper Sport between East and West, University of Zürich, 7./ , pp Citizens at play In Molloy, Peter The Lost World of Communism: An Oral History of Daily Life Behind the Iron Curtain. BBC Books, pp o Riordan, James. The Sports Policy of The Soviet Union, In Arnaud, p. and Riordan, J Sport and International Politics: The impact of fascism and communism on sport. London-NY: Routledge, pp th SESSION November 13 th CENTRAL EUROPEAN CINEMATOGRAPHY CZECHOSLOVAK NEW WAVE OF THE 1960s Movie: Fireman s Ball, CS, 1967, 71 min. - Hames, Peter. The Czechoslovak New Wave? A revolution denied. In Badley, Linda et al. (eds.) Traditions in World Cinema. Edinburg University Press, pp Hames, Peter Czech and Slovak Cinema. Theme and Tradition. Edinburgh University Press. Chapter 4 Politics, pp o Hames, Peter The Czechoslovak New Wave. Berkley-L.A.-London: University of California Press. Chapter I Culture and Society, pp o Stojanova, Christina. Postcommunist Cinema: The politics of gender and genre. In Badley, Linda et al. (eds.) Traditions in World Cinema. Edinburg University Press, pp o Mazierska, Ewa. Polish Martial Law of 1981 in Polish post-communist films: Between romanticism and postmodernism. Communist and Post-communist Studies, 42 (2009), pp o Portuges, Catherine. Border Crossings: Recent Trends in East and Central European Cinema. Slavic Review, Vol. 51, No. 3 (Autumn, 1992), pp

4 5 th SESSION November 27 th ALTERNATIVE CULTURE AND UNDERGROUND Movie: The Beats of Freedom, PL, various videos and other audio-visual material - Velinger, Jan et al A brief look at 'protest' music plus the underground scene in Czechoslovakia from brief-look-at-protest-music-plus-the-underground-scene-in-czechoslovakia-from Machovec, Martin. The Types and Functions of Samizdat Publications in Czechoslovakia, Poetics Today, Vol. 30, No 1 /Publish and Perish: Samizdat and Underground Cultural Practices in the Soviet Bloc (II), ed. V. Todorov/, Duke University Press, Durham, NC, USA, Spring 2009, pp o The Dynamic 1960s, Part Two: Key Productions in New Studio Theatres and Elsewhere. In Burian, Jarka M Modern Czech Theatre: Reflector and Conscience of a Nation. University of Iowa Press, pp o Beck, Dennis C Divadlo Husa na Provázku and the Absence of Czech Community. Theatre Journal, Vol. 48, No. 4, Eastern-European Transitions (Dec., 1996), pp o Piotrowski, Piotr In the Shadow of Yalta: Art and the Avant-garde in Eastern Europe, London: Reaktion Books. Epilogue: The Spectres Hunting Europe in 1980s, pp th SESSION December 4 th REMEMBERING EVERYDAY LIFE IN COMMUNISM Movie: The Lost World of Communism, 2009 BBC documentary. Ep. 1: A Socialist Paradise and Ep. 2: The Kingdom of Forgetting ( min.) - Tóth, Eszter Zsófia. My work, My Family and My Car : Women s Memories of Work Consumerism, and Leisure in Socialist Hungary. In Penn, Shana and Massino, Jill Gender Politics and Everyday Life in State Socialist Eastern and Central Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, pp Socialist Youth In Molloy, Peter The Lost World of Communism: An Oral History of Daily Life Behind the Iron Curtain. BBC Books, pp o Esbenshade, Richard S Remembering to Forget: Memory, History, National Identity In Postwar East-Central Europe. Representations, No. 49 (special issue), pp o Ziólkowski, Marek. Remembering and Forgetting after Communism. The Polish Case. Polish Sociological Review, 2002, no. 1, pp o Liodden, Tone Maia Czech Emigrants Before and After the Iron Curtain: Life stories in the context of changing cultural narratives (Master s thesis in sociology). Dept. of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo. 7 th SESSION December 11 th (essay deadline) POST-COMMUNISM Movie: Czech Dream, CZ 2004, 90 min. 4

5 - Howard, Marc The Weakness of Post-Communist Civil Society. Journal of Democracy, Vol. 13, No. 1. January 2002, pp Stroehlien, Andrew Czech Intellectuals and Post-communism. Central Europe Review, Vol. 1, No o Szczerbiak, Aleks Dealing with the Communist Past or the Politics of the Present? Lustration in Post-Communist Poland. Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 54, No. 4 (Jun 2002), pp o Kubik, Jan Cultural Legacies of State Socialism: History Making and Cultural-Political Entrepreneurship in Postcommunist Poland and Russia. In Ekiert, Grzegorz and Hanson, Stephen (eds.) Capitalism and Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe: Assessing the Legacy of Communist Rule. Cambridge University Press, pp o Kumar, Krishan The Revolutions of 1989: Socialism, Capitalism and Democracy. Theory and Society, Vol. 21, No. 3 (Jun., 1992), pp o 5