Course Description: The course deals with symbolical figures from Czech history (such as priest Josef Toufar, Jan Hus and others) and the changes in the interpretation of their role throughout history. It will focus on the interaction between ideology and history, history and historical myths, and collective memory and historical consciousness. The aim of the course is to introduce students to significant milestones and symbolical figures in Czech history, and to demonstrate the ambiguity of their interpretation due to different political and historical contexts. An educational excursion (National Memorial on the Vítkov Hill) is a part of the syllabus.

The course deals with symbolical figures from Czech history (such as priest Josef Toufar, Jan Hus and others) and the changes in the interpretation of their role throughout history. It will focus on the interaction between ideology and history, history and historical myths, and collective memory and historical consciousness. The aim of the course is to introduce students to significant milestones and symbolical figures in Czech history, and to demonstrate the ambiguity of their interpretation due to different political and historical contexts. An educational excursion (National Memorial on the Vítkov Hill) is a part of the syllabus.

Structure: lectures, discussions, educational excursion (National Memorial on the Vítkov Hill)

Course Requirements:

Students are expected to discuss the current issues in class. Students are allowed to miss only two classes per semester.

Terms of passing the course: final test

Final test based on the lectures and recommended readings.

In preparation of the final test, students should use notes from the lectures, materials from the recommended readings, relevant secondary sources based on the student´s own research, and are also encouraged to relate the material to current issues.

Student’s own critical observations, experience and critical reflections are invited as well.

 

For LEAVING STUDENTS (such as Erasmus program students etc.) ONLY: students who leave the Czech Republic before the first term of the final test have the option of writing a final essay instead of the final test.

Final essay (1 850 – 2 200 words long) on a pre-agreed topic needs to contain exact references and to state all their sources, i.e. also a bibliography. 

Student’s critical observations, experience and critical reflections are very welcomed.

This option is open for Erasmus students (or students of international exchange or similar program) only!

Essay: National myths, national heroes, and national history. Use the history of your own nation.

What are your national heroes/symbolical figures in your national history? What is your favourite national hero and national myth? Which role do they play in the national history, national identity, national consciousness? Has their interpretation been changed in the course of the history? Do you have an example of your national myth? Do we need to deconstruct every myth? Can you find any examples of the interrelation between historical policy, historical interpretation, and ideology or propaganda? Which role in national identity does national history play? Which significant events from (your own) national history form (your) national identity? Does (your) national history have an example of a "national enemy" (such as traditionally German "villain" or German element in the conception of the Czech national history through the centuries)? Do we need such an "enemy" for strengthening national identity? and other question.

The deadline of the essay is July, 2.

Evaluation Method:

Grades will be based on attendance (20%), active participation in discussions (20%), and a final test (60%).

Course syllabus:

An educational excursion (National Memorial on the Vítkov Hill) is a part of the syllabus.

1. Introduction into history (goals, approaches to studied topics, examples of main questions to focus on).
2. Methodology. Objectivity of history and historians. Sources critique.
3. Historical Consciousness and Collective memory. The ways of their formation, sources and theoretical approaches to their study (Talcott Parsons’. Jiří Šubrt’s, and Miroslav Hroch’s models).
4. Symbolical centres and Symbolical figures. Theoretical definition. Charles IV, the Father of the Country, and the Golden Age of the Bohemian Crown. The Good King Wenceslaus and his tale.
5. Ideology and historical myths. Libuše the prophet and the priest, and the others.
6. Jan Hus, Hussites and Hussite revolution: transformation of their interpretation in the course of history.
7. Jan Hus and Jan Nepomuk: two saints, two sides?
8. Josef Toufar and the miracle from Čihošť
9. Czech Music Avantgarde: The Plastic Peoples of Universe.
10. Jan Palach and his sacrifice.
11. Václav Havel and the Velvet Revolution: transformation of post-socialist memory?
12. Final discussion

Final test

Course syllabus:

An educational excursion (National Memorial on the Vítkov Hill) is a part of the syllabus.

1. Introduction into history (goals, approaches to studied topics, examples of main questions to focus on).
2. Methodology. Objectivity of history and historians. Sources critique.
3. Historical Consciousness and Collective memory. The ways of their formation, sources and theoretical approaches to their study (Talcott Parsons’. Jiří Šubrt’s, and Miroslav Hroch’s models).
4. Symbolical centres and Symbolical figures. Theoretical definition. Charles IV, the Father of the Country, and the Golden Age of the Bohemian Crown. The Good King Wenceslaus and his tale.
5. Ideology and historical myths. Libuše the prophet and the priest, and the others.
6. Jan Hus, Hussites and Hussite revolution: transformation of their interpretation in the course of history.
7. Jan Hus and Jan Nepomuk: two saints, two sides?
8. Josef Toufar and the miracle from Čihošť
9. Czech Music Avantgarde: The Plastic Peoples of Universe.
10. Jan Palach and his sacrifice.
11. Václav Havel and the Velvet Revolution: transformation of post-socialist memory?
12. Final discussion

Final test

Recommended Reading:

Bolton J., Worlds of Dissent. Charter 77, The Plastic People of the Universe, and Czech Culture under Communism, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass. 2012.

Havel, V., „The power of the powerless”, in: Václav Havel, John Keane (eds.), The power of the powerless: citizens against the state in central - eastern Europe, London: Hutchinson, 1985.

or: http://www.vaclavhavel.cz/index.php?sec=6&id=2&kat&from=6&setln=2

Herold, V., Jan Hus - a Heretic, a Saint, or a Reformer?. In: Herold, Vilém. Communio viatorum. A theological journal. 45, č. 1, (2003,) pp. 5-23.

Kelly, C., Comrade Pavlik: The Rise and Fall of a Soviet Boy Hero, Granta Books, 2005.

Machovec, M., (ed.), Views from the inside: Czech underground literature and culture (1948-1989): manifestoes - testimonies – documents, Praha: Ústav české literatury a literární vědy, Filozofická fakulta Univerzity Karlovy, 2006.

Paces, C. J., Religious Heroes for a Secular State. Commemorating Jan Hus and Saint Wenceslas in 1920s Czechoslovakia. Paces, Cynthia Jean. In: Staging the Past. The Politics of Commemoration in Habsburg Central Europe, 1848 to the Present. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 2001, pp. 199-225.

Pánek, J. (eds.), A History of the Czech Lands, Prague: Carolinum Press, 2009.

Werner, M., „Jan Palach Remembered.“ Marian Werner. In: Z Londýna opět něco, co nevíte: sborník přednášek Britské skupiny Společnosti pro vědu a umění, London: Britská skupina SVU, 2016, pp. 473-491.

Williams, K., Václav Havel. [s.l.]: Reaktion Books, 2016.

 

E-sources: recommended reading (i.e. scanned fragments and chapters from the relevant literature) is available on the study platform in SIS.

http://www.vaclavhavel.cz/index.php?sec=6&id=2&kat&from=6&setln=2