SubjectsSubjects(version: 978)
Course, academic year 2025/2026
   
Nation, Class and Authenticity in the Modern World - OPDX1O112B
Title: Národ, třída a autenticita v moderním světě (FLÚ)
Guaranteed by: Katedra občanské výchovy a filosofie (41-KOVF)
Faculty: Faculty of Education
Actual: from 2020
Semester: both
E-Credits: 0
Hours per week, examination: 0/0, other [HT]
Extent per academic year: 8 [hours]
Capacity: winter:unknown / unknown (unknown)
summer:unknown / unknown (unknown)
Min. number of students: unlimited
4EU+: no
Virtual mobility / capacity: no
State of the course: taught
Language: English
Teaching methods: combined
Note: course is intended for doctoral students only
enabled for web enrollment
can be fulfilled in the future
you can enroll for the course in winter and in summer semester
Guarantor: Joe Feinberg, BA, M.A., Ph.D.
Annotation -
This course introduces students to the basic discussion of the intertwining of collective identity, belonging and political mobilization in the modern world. We will first focus on classical studies of nationalism, and then move on to various attempts to overcome or stop nationalism through universalist conceptions of collectivity, such as cosmopolitanism or internationalism. The fusion of universalism and nationalism leads us to the question of social class, which is often seen as a way of questioning national unity and proposing a different kind of solidarity that transcends national boundaries. However, the notion of class also appears in the critique of false universalism — in those types of universalism that invoke a vision of global unity but in fact presuppose exclusion. Indeed, class can be understood as that which is not included in the supposedly holistic vision of the nation and universality. In all cases, the question of belonging to a certain collective relates to the question of authenticity: does the individual really belong to the group to whose identity she or he declares? Does the group authentically represent those they claim to represent? Can there ever be a perfect match between abstract collectivity (nation, class, humanity) and the specific people we assume belong to a particular group?
Last update: Stracený Josef, PhDr., CSc. (12.03.2025)
Course completion requirements -

Discussion over topics assigned to the student.

Last update: Hauser Michael, doc. Mgr., Ph.D. (17.11.2020)
Literature -

Obligatory literature:

ANDERSON, B. Imagined Communities. London: Verso, 1991.

BADIOU, A. Saint Paul: The Foundation of Universalism. Stanford: Stanford U. Press, 2003.

BENEŠ, J. Workers and Nationalism: Czech and German Social Democracy in Habsburg Austria, 1890–1918. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.

BUCK-MORSS, S. Hegel, Haiti and Universal History. Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009.

DEUTSCHE, K. Nationalism and Its Alternatives. New York: Knopf, 1969.

GELLNER, E. Nations and Nationalism. Ithaca: Cornell U. Press, 2008.

KOHN, H. The Idea of Nationalism. New Brunswick: Transaction, 2008.

ROEDIGER, D. The Wages of Whiteness. London: Verso, 1991.

TOMBA, M. Insurgent Universality: An Alternative Legacy of Modernity. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.

TRILLING, L. Sincerity and Authenticity. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard U. Press, 1972.

 

Recommended literature:

BAUER, O. The Question of Nationalities and Social Democracy. Minneapolis: U. of Minnesota Press, 2000.

FEINBERG, J.G. The Paradox of Authenticity: Folklore Performance in Post–Communist Slovakia (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2018).

HROCH, M. European Nations: Explaining Their Formation. London: Verso, 2015.

IGNATIEV, N. How the Irish Became White. New York: Routledge, 1995.

JACKSON, J. L. Real Black: Adventures in Racial Sincerity. Chicago: U. of Chicago Press, 2005.

SUNY, R. G. The Revenge of the Past: Nationalism, Revolution, and the Collapse of the Soviet Union. Stanford: Stanford U. Press, 1993.

Last update: Stracený Josef, PhDr., CSc. (12.03.2025)
Teaching methods -

Seminar, consultations, individual work.

Last update: Hauser Michael, doc. Mgr., Ph.D. (17.11.2020)
Requirements to the exam -

Teaching and examination will be in English.

Last update: Hauser Michael, doc. Mgr., Ph.D. (17.11.2020)
 
Charles University | Information system of Charles University | http://www.cuni.cz/UKEN-329.html