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Course, academic year 2023/2024
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History of Central European Culture II - JMM806
Title: Dějiny středoevropské kultury II
Guaranteed by: Department of German and Austrian Studies (23-KNRS)
Faculty: Faculty of Social Sciences
Actual: from 2023
Semester: winter
E-Credits: 9
Examination process: winter s.:
Hours per week, examination: winter s.:4/0, Ex [HT]
Capacity: 118 / unknown (0)
Min. number of students: unlimited
4EU+: no
Virtual mobility / capacity: no
State of the course: not taught
Language: Czech
Teaching methods: combined
Teaching methods: combined
Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan
enabled for web enrollment
Guarantor: PhDr. David Emler, Ph.D.
Teacher(s): PhDr. David Emler, Ph.D.
Examination dates   Schedule   Noticeboard   
Annotation -
Last update: PhDr. David Emler, Ph.D. (03.09.2019)
On the example of cultural environment, students can investigate fundamental changes of the Central European society from the experience, reception, and reflexion of the WWII, through the "kidnapping" of Central Europe to the Soviet Union's sphere of influence to the events from 1989/1990. The course presents the topics in a non-descriptive manner on selected key topics from culture and arts.
Aim of the course -
Last update: PhDr. David Emler, Ph.D. (03.09.2019)

The aim of the seminar is to teach students the basic knowledge about the development of culture in Central Europe in the second half of the 20th century. The course understands culture as a widely defined social space, alternative to politics. Art styles covered by the course are literature but to some extent also film, photography or architecture.

Literature -
Last update: PhDr. David Emler, Ph.D. (03.09.2019)

BROWN, TIMOTHY S. „1968“ East and West – Divided Germany as a Case Study in Transnational History“, American Historical Review, February 2009, 69–96.

CUNNINGHAM, JOSEPH. “Praxis Exiled: Herbert Marcuse and the One Dimensional University”, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Vol. 47, No. 4, 2013, 537–547.

EBENSHADE, RICHARD S. “Remembering to Forget: Memory, History, National Identity in Postwar East-Central Europe”, Representations, Vol. 39, Winter 1995, 72–96.

EKMAN, J. and LINDE, J. "Communist Nostalgia and the Consolidation of Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe", Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, Vol. 21, No. 3, September 2005, 354–374.

GANDY, MATTHEW. "Contradictory Modernities: Conceptions of Nature in the Art of Joseph Beuys and Gerhard Richter", Annals of the Association of American Geographers 87(4), 1997, 636–659.

HAYTON, JEFF. „Härte gegen Punk: Popular Music, Western Media and State Response in the German Democratic Republic”, German History, Vol. 31, No. 4, 523–549.

KUNDERA, MILAN. "The Tragedy of Central Europe", New York Review of Books, Volume 31, Number 7, April 26, 1984.

LITTLEJOHN, J. T. and PUTNAM, M. "Rammstein and Ostalgie: Longing for Yesteryear", Popular Music and Society, Vol. 33, No. 1, February 2010, 35–44.

PIOTROWSKI, PIOTR. “How to Write a History of Central-East European Art?,” Third text, Vol. 23, No. 1, January 2009, 5–14.

ROUBAL, PETR. “Politics of Gymnastics: Mass Gymnastic Displays under Communism in Central and Eastern Europe” Body & Society, Vol. 9, No. 1, 2003, 1–25.

WASILEWSKI, WITOLD. “The Birth and Persistence of the Katyn Lie”, Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law, Vol. 45, No. 1, Spring 2009, 671–693.

Teaching methods -
Last update: PhDr. David Emler, Ph.D. (03.09.2019)

Active participation in the seminar based on reading, regular consultations and a long seminar paper.

Requirements to the exam -
Last update: PhDr. David Emler, Ph.D. (03.10.2019)

Active participation of students in the seminar, which encompasses reading of the mandatory texts to the covered topics (approx. 180 pages) and active discussion based on this reader (20% of the final note). Finally an oral examination (30% of the final note) based on the defense of a seminar paper (20 pages min., 50% of the final note).

Final note is based on 0-100% evaluation, A-F grading scale is determined as follows:

  • 91% and more   =>            A
  • 81-90%             =>            B
  • 71-80%             =>            C
  • 61-70%             =>            D
  • 51-60%             =>            E
  • 0-50%               =>            F    
  • A – excellent (outstanding performance with only minor mistakes)
  • B – very good (above average performance with some mistakes)
  • C – good (overall good performance with a number of notable mistakes)
  • D – satisfactory (acceptable performance with significant mistakes)
  • E – sufficient (performance fulfills only minimum criteria)
  • F – insufficient/failed (more effort needs to be made).
Syllabus -
Last update: PhDr. David Emler, Ph.D. (03.09.2019)

1.     Introduction - formal aspects, definition of culture, Central Europe and the studied time period 

2.     WWII and its cultural reflexion

3.     Collective memory and the WWII – example of Katyn massacre

4.     Cultural aspects of the postwar reconstruction of the society

5.     Philosophy in the 2nd half of the 20the century and its reception in culture

6.     Urbanism and architecture in the 2nd half of the 20th century

7.     New Wave – cultural phenomenon of the 1960s

8.     The year 1968 – Paris or Prague?

9.     Sport as a measure of organization of the society

10.   Protest (antisystem) movements in the West and in the East

11.   Remembering the communist regimes – example of "Ostalgie" in the GDR

12.  Wrap-up and conclusion

Entry requirements -
Last update: PhDr. David Emler, Ph.D. (03.09.2019)

Knowledge of English, basic knowledge of contemporary history at grammar school level.

 
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