This course aims to provide an introduction to oral history using the historical phenomena of the Cold War with
special emphasis at ex-communist countries such as Czechoslovakia, Eastern Germany, Soviet Union, and China
and also actors of Western leftist groupings. Most histories emphasize major political events or structures of
economic development. Professor Donald A. Ritchie, the author of the influential book Doing Oral History, once
explained the core of the discipline in these telling words: we do not do oral history to confirm what we already
know, but rather to question what we consider to be supposedly clear. So, our main goal will be entirely different
from the usual perspectives on Cold War: we will avoid major narratives and attempt to understand the structures
and meaning of the historical subjectivity of so-called „ordinary people“, living under these oppressive regimes.
How was life beyond the Iron Curtain for them? In which terms they had conceptualized their life experience? How
did they relate to people, ideas, and material objects from the West? Oral history understands „ordinary people“ to
be much more than just „onlookers“ to the actions of major historical actors.
Poslední úprava: Kučabová Veronika, Bc. (14.06.2024)
This course aims to provide an introduction to oral history using the historical phenomena of the Cold War with
special emphasis at ex-communist countries such as Czechoslovakia, Eastern Germany, Soviet Union, and China
and also actors of Western leftist groupings. Most histories emphasize major political events or structures of
economic development. Professor Donald A. Ritchie, the author of the influential book Doing Oral History, once
explained the core of the discipline in these telling words: we do not do oral history to confirm what we already
know, but rather to question what we consider to be supposedly clear. So, our main goal will be entirely different
from the usual perspectives on Cold War: we will avoid major narratives and attempt to understand the structures
and meaning of the historical subjectivity of so-called „ordinary people“, living under these oppressive regimes.
How was life beyond the Iron Curtain for them? In which terms they had conceptualized their life experience? How
did they relate to people, ideas, and material objects from the West? Oral history understands „ordinary people“ to
be much more than just „onlookers“ to the actions of major historical actors.
Poslední úprava: Kučabová Veronika, Bc. (14.06.2024)
Podmínky zakončení předmětu -
Requirements to pass the course:
at least 75% attendance
written semestral test with four open questions, covering the topics discussed. Each answer can be awarded 0-3 points.
Test grading: 12-10 points = excellent ("1"), 9-7 points = very good ("2"), 6-5 points = good "3", less than 5 points = fail ("neprospěl/a")
Grade composition
attendance 10%
written semestral test 90%
Poslední úprava: Kučabová Veronika, Bc. (14.06.2024)
Requirements to pass the course:
at least 75% attendance
written semestral test with four open questions, covering the topics discussed. Each answer can be awarded 0-3 points.
Test grading: 12-10 points = excellent ("1"), 9-7 points = very good ("2"), 6-5 points = good "3", less than 5 points = fail ("neprospěl/a")
Grade composition
attendance 10%
written semestral test 90%
Poslední úprava: Kučabová Veronika, Bc. (14.06.2024)
Sylabus -
THE COURSE OF LECTURES
2 October 2024 1) Introduction - Cold War experience through the lens of cultural and oral history - Alistair Thompson, „Four Paradigm Transformations in Oral History,“ The Oral History Review 34/1 (2006): 49-70.
9 October 2024 2) USSR - The Gulag: survival and exile - Gheith, Gulag Voices, Chapter 8 - Enumerated Units, p. 133-150.
16 October 2024 3) USSR - The cynical generation: Brezhnev years and détente - Raleigh, Soviet Baby Boomers, Introduction, p. 3-15, Chapter 3 - Unconscious agents of change - Soviet Childhood Creates the Cynical Generation, p. 120-168.
23 October 2024 4) USSR - „How thirty people can share an apartment?“ - everyday communal living - Messana, Soviet Communal Living, Introduction, p. 1-5. Chapters 1, 10, 14, 23, 25.- - Steven E. Harris, "I know all the Secrets of my Neighbors: The Quest for Privacy in the Era of the Separate Apartment,", in Lewis H. Siegelbaum, Borders of Socialism. Private Spheres of Soviet Russia, p. 171-190.
30 October 2024 5) USSR - Notebooks of Evgeniia Kiseleva - Irina Paperno, "The Notebooks of the Peasant Evgeniia Kiseleva: The War Separated Us Forever", in Irina Paperno, Stories of the Soviet Experience - Memories, Diaries, Dreams (Cornell UP: Ithaca and London, 2009): II/2, p. 118-158.
6 November 2024 6) Uchronic dreams - the post-WWII experience of communist militants in Italy - Portelli, The Death of Luigi Trastulli, chapter 6, "Uchronic Dreams: Working-Class Memory and Possible Worlds."
13 November 2024 7) China - one girl's experience of the Cultural Revolution - Ye Weili and Ma Xiaodong, Growing Up in The People’s Republic, Foreword, Chronology of major events, Introduction, Chapters 3, 4, and 5.
20 November 2024 8) Czechoslovakia I - the short-lived dream of the Prague Spring of 1968 and its aftermath - Zounek et al. “You have betrayed us for a little dirty money!” The Prague Spring as seen by primary school teachers
27 November 2024 9) Czechoslovakia II - The birth of the Czechoslovak "normalization" - Kevin McDermott, Matthew Stibbe, edd., Czechoslovakia and Eastern Europe in the Era of Normalisation 1969-1989 (Palgrave Macmillan: Cham, 2022) - Chapter 2 (Building the Normalisation Panorama 1968-1969), Chapter 3 (The Ideological Face of Normalisation: Socialist Modernity and the 'Quiet Life').
4 December 2024 10) Czechoslovakia III - Social control during Czechoslovak "normalization" - Kevin McDermott, Matthew Stibbe, edd., Czechoslovakia and Eastern Europe in the Era of Normalisation 1969-1989 (Palgrave Macmillan: Cham, 2022) - Chapter 6 (Czechoslovak Security Service During Normalisation: The Appearance of Success), Chapter 9 (Shaping 'Real Socialism': The Normalised Conception of Culture).
11 December 2024 11) Czechoslovakia IV - an oral history of everyday life during "normalization" - Miroslav Vaněk, Pavel Mücke, Velvet Revolutions. An Oral History of Czech Society (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2016). Introduction, and Chapters 2 (Transforming the Family in Socialism) and 6 (The Meaning of Free Time: Work, Family, and Leisure).
18 December 2024 12) Written semestral test - first term More terms for the written semestral test will be provided during January and February 2025
Poslední úprava: Wohlmuth Petr, PhDr. Mgr., Ph.D. (02.10.2024)
THE COURSE OF LECTURES
2 October 2024 1) Introduction - Cold War experience through the lens of cultural and oral history - Alistair Thompson, „Four Paradigm Transformations in Oral History,“ The Oral History Review 34/1 (2006): 49-70.
9 October 2024 2) USSR - The Gulag: survival and exile - Gheith, Gulag Voices, Chapter 8 - Enumerated Units, p. 133-150.
16 October 2024 3) USSR - The cynical generation: Brezhnev years and détente - Raleigh, Soviet Baby Boomers, Introduction, p. 3-15, Chapter 3 - Unconscious agents of change - Soviet Childhood Creates the Cynical Generation, p. 120-168.
23 October 2024 4) USSR - „How thirty people can share an apartment?“ - everyday communal living - Messana, Soviet Communal Living, Introduction, p. 1-5. Chapters 1, 10, 14, 23, 25.- - Steven E. Harris, "I know all the Secrets of my Neighbors: The Quest for Privacy in the Era of the Separate Apartment,", in Lewis H. Siegelbaum, Borders of Socialism. Private Spheres of Soviet Russia, p. 171-190.
30 October 2024 5) USSR - Notebooks of Evgeniia Kiseleva - Irina Paperno, "The Notebooks of the Peasant Evgeniia Kiseleva: The War Separated Us Forever", in Irina Paperno, Stories of the Soviet Experience - Memories, Diaries, Dreams (Cornell UP: Ithaca and London, 2009): II/2, p. 118-158.
6 November 2024 6) Uchronic dreams - the post-WWII experience of communist militants in Italy - Portelli, The Death of Luigi Trastulli, chapter 6, "Uchronic Dreams: Working-Class Memory and Possible Worlds."
13 November 2024 7) China - one girl's experience of the Cultural Revolution - Ye Weili and Ma Xiaodong, Growing Up in The People’s Republic, Foreword, Chronology of major events, Introduction, Chapters 3, 4, and 5.
20 November 2024 8) Czechoslovakia I - the short-lived dream of the Prague Spring of 1968 and its aftermath - Zounek et al. “You have betrayed us for a little dirty money!” The Prague Spring as seen by primary school teachers
27 November 2024 9) Czechoslovakia II - The birth of the Czechoslovak "normalization" - Kevin McDermott, Matthew Stibbe, edd., Czechoslovakia and Eastern Europe in the Era of Normalisation 1969-1989 (Palgrave Macmillan: Cham, 2022) - Chapter 2 (Building the Normalisation Panorama 1968-1969), Chapter 3 (The Ideological Face of Normalisation: Socialist Modernity and the 'Quiet Life').
4 December 2024 10) Czechoslovakia III - Social control during Czechoslovak "normalization" - Kevin McDermott, Matthew Stibbe, edd., Czechoslovakia and Eastern Europe in the Era of Normalisation 1969-1989 (Palgrave Macmillan: Cham, 2022) - Chapter 6 (Czechoslovak Security Service During Normalisation: The Appearance of Success), Chapter 9 (Shaping 'Real Socialism': The Normalised Conception of Culture).
11 December 2024 11) Czechoslovakia IV - an oral history of everyday life during "normalization" - Miroslav Vaněk, Pavel Mücke, Velvet Revolutions. An Oral History of Czech Society (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2016). Introduction, and Chapters 2 (Transforming the Family in Socialism) and 6 (The Meaning of Free Time: Work, Family, and Leisure).
18 December 2024 12) Written semestral test - first term More terms for the written semestral test will be provided during January and February 2025
Poslední úprava: Wohlmuth Petr, PhDr. Mgr., Ph.D. (02.10.2024)
