Society and Culture of East-Central and South Eastern Europe

Society and Culture of East-Central and South Eastern Europe

16th – 20th Century

DANIEL Ondřej, KALIVODOVÁ Eva

Monday 17:30– 19:00, main building, room 302b

Thursday 17:30 – 19:00, main building, room 302b

Description of the course

This course should offer to students at the same time chronological and thematical overview over the period of building modernity (16th – 20th centuries) in the concerned area. The seminars consist of opening the debate on the presupposed peripheral character of East-Central Europe and South Eastern Europe. While East Central Europe is provisionally defined as a region east of Germany and west of Russia, and north of the Danube up to the Baltic see. Southeastern Europe is generally coterminous with the Balkans. Which were the elements of the modernity and on the contrary which were the behindhand effects of the Centre-European society? The seminar will particularly focus on study of material culture and the religious problematic on the one hand and of the nationalist question and social problems of the modern State on the other hand. Important tools to describe the society and culture present the results of the Cultural studies-based research of East-Central Europe and South Eastern Europe. This optics can help to focus on the processes of nation-building, state-building of the post-Versailles period, communism and the period after 1989.

Objective of the course

Introduce students to the history and culture of the region of East Central and South Eastern Europe. At the end of the course the students are expected to be able to put on the historical and cultural map of Europe major problems, tendencies and concepts related to it.

Examination requirements

6 ECTS: Active participation in the course with 3 absences acceptable. Class attendance is mandatory. The unexcused absences will be reflected in the final grade (half of the final grade progressively).

Evaluation will be based on oral interventions during the course, midterm reflection and a written essay– in the format of take-away examination informed by thetexts read during the course.

Evaluation: graded examination, 6 ECTS

Attendance means participation in the work – reading the texts and participation in class discussions.

MA students: Individual research project – 10 – 15 pages.

BA students : Reflection of the seminar on 2-3 pages (max. 2000 words) at midterm, a take-away examination.

Written texts may be delivered either in English, French, German or Czech, Slovak, Polish and Russian language.

Academic Honesty Policy: Presenting work of another person as one´s own, using unauthorized assistance on exams, submitting the same paper in two classes is not tolerated and may lead to dismissal from the program.

Assessment BA students:

The grading will be based on attendance and participation in the discussions, midterm essay and final paper.

- Class attendance and active participation: 20%, (3 excused absences will be tolerated)

- Midterm essay: 30%

- Final Paper: 50 %

Type of course

Lectures combined with discussions based on reading of obligatory texts.

Requirements

The course was designed for the Master programme TEMA for MA students of History and Social Sciences. It is open to all ERASMUS and ECES students at the MA level. If space is still available, it will be opened to BA students.

Syllabus

1st seminar

a) 23. 2. – Introduction to the course – Explanation of the seminar format

Notion of the region, geographical, historical and cultural definitions

b) 26.2.- Notion of the region, geographical, historical and cultural definitions,

-question of modernity and backwardness

- historiography, concepts, maps,

2nd seminar

a) 2.3. Central Europe – birthplace of the Reform

Hussite movement and its followers : Unity of Brethren and neo-utraquists in Czech lands, German Reformation and its extension and impact in Austria, Hungaria, Bohemia and Poland, the reform tradition in Central Europe as a factor of the intellectual modernity??

Mandatory :

EVANS R.J.W., The Making of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1550-1700, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1979.

- selected chapters

Optional:

GAMINSKY, Howard A History of the Hussite Revolution, University of California Press, Berkley, 1967.

POLISENSKÝ J. V., “The Thirty Years War”, in Past and Present.1954; 6, pp. 31-43.

b) 5.3. Central Europe –Reformation and Counter Reformation,

- debate: Between toleration and Resistance

KRIZOVA M., „Herrnhut: City Upon a Hill in Turbulent Times“, in: Urbanistyka 5, 2000, special edition Peripheries or Crossroads of Cultures? (Towns of East-Central and South-Eastern Europe), the Fifth International Conference on Urban History, ed. Slawomir Gzell, Luďa Klusáková, Warszawa 2000, pp. 59-64.

KOWALSKA E., “Heretics and Proselytes: The Formation and Perception of Confessional Identity among Czech Protestants after 1781”, in “Meeting the Other. Studies in Comparative History. Acta Universitatis Carolinae – Philosophica et historica” 2-2003. Studia historica LVI. Praha: Karolinum Press 2003, pp.71-83.

KALIVODOVÁ Eva: “Attempts to transgress the confessional border, a possible way to the religious tolerance in the Bohemian and French kingdoms?” in HÁLFDANARSON Gudmundur, (ed.): Frontiers and Identities. Discrimination and Tolerance in Historical Perspective, Edizioni Plus, Pisa University Press, Pisa 2008.

3rd seminar

a) 09. 3. Baroque society and Culture in CEE and its impact on the European civilization

“baroque absolutism” and the struggle against the enemies of Christianity, baroque culture: art, piety, architecture, literature, role of the saints and their cults, popular culture, baroque versus classicism=>lead in the Enlightened absolutism

Mandatory:

AGNEW Hugh, The Czechs and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown, Hoover Institution Press, Stanford, Los Angeles, 2004. (part II : Golden Ages and Times of darkness)

SCOTT, H.M., Enlightened Absolutism, Reform and Reformers in Later Eighteenth-Century Europe, The University of Michigan Press, 1993.

selected chapters

Optional :

BIRELEY, Robert: Religion and Politics in the Age of Counterreformation. Emperor Ferdinand II, William Lamormaini S. J. and the formation of the Imperial policy, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1981.

TAPIE,V.-L., L’Europe de Marie-Thérèse:du Baroque aux Lumières, Paris, Fayard,1973.

b) 12.3. Baroque society and Culture in CEE

- debate : central European exceptionality-comparative view on the early modern European courts and monarchies

4th seminar

a) 16. 3. Bourgeois society inCentral Europe

-the heritage of the Enlightened absolutism, the question of the Citizenship in Central Europe -neither the English model, neither the French model, prolongation of the Ancien Regime in Central Europe until second half of the 19th century, |Metternich and Bach – reactionary absolutism, importance of the national building process in the CEE and SEE history

Mandatory:

BRAUDEL F., Civilization and Capitalism, vol. III: The Perspective of the World (1984, originally published in French, 1979.)

Optional:

BARMEYER Heide, „Bismarck and the Origins of the Modern Welfare State“, in: Jensen Henrik (ed.): The Welfare State, Past, Present, Future, Clioh´s Workshop II/, Edizioni Plus, Universita di Pisa, 2002, p.87-111.

CHIROT Daniel, The Origins of Backwardness in Eastern Europe, Economics and Politics from the Middle Ages until the Early Twentieth Century, University of California Press, London, 1989.

b) 19. 3. Bourgeois society inCentral Europe

- discussion of the reading questions

LOTTES G., „From Non-Observance to Consent: A Neglected Aspect of Early Modern Law Formation“ in: Günther Lottes, Eero Medijainen, Jón Viðar Sigurðsson (ed.): Making, Using and Resisting the Law. Edizioni Plus, Pisa University Press, Pisa 2008,pp. 145-157-

BRUBAKER, Rogers: “Citizenship as Social Closure”, in: Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany, Harvard University Press, 1992, p. 21-34. (reader text)

MACKINDER Halford J.: „The Freedom of Nations”, in: Democratic Ideals and Reality Ed. by Anthony J. Pearce, W. W. Norton & Company, New York, 1962, p. 148-181.- (reader text)

5th seminar

a) 23. 3. Inventing "National Cultures" in the CEE and SEE

The national cultures in the CEE and SEE are results of the “national renewal” in the 19th century. Old traditions were restored, created or reinvented in order to legitimize the “historical” claims of these small nations.

Mandatory :

E. J. HOBSBAWM, T. RANGER (eds.), The Invention of Tradition, Cambridge 1983.

Optional :

N. WINGFIELD (ed.), Creating the Other: Ethnic Conflict and Nationalism in Habsburg Central Europe, New York 2003.

b) 26.3. Nationalism, patriotism and the new society of the public sphere

-discussion of the reading questions ( to be speciefied)

6th seminar

a) 30. 3. Austro-hungarian society at the turn of the century

-multi-ethnic society and its conflicts : the Czech-German problem, The Czech-Hungarian antagonism, Jews and anti-Semitism, regional particularism or political centralism?, political scene- position in delay between conservatism and progress, cultural elites and politics, rise of socialism and the birth of the proletarian class in the CEE

Mandatory reading will be selected from:

COHEN Gary B., „Nationalist Politics and the Dynamics of State and Civil Society in the Habsburg monarchy, 1867-1914“, in: Central European History, 40, 2007, p. 241-278.

Optional:

MOLL Martin, „A Vulnerable Empire: The Habsburg Monarchy in the European Power system, 1815-1918“, in: Ellis Steven (ed.): Empires and States in European Perspective, Clioh´s Workshop II/6, Edizioni Plus, Universita di Pisa, 2002, p. 177-197.

ZAHRADNIKOVA Marie, „ Czech Jewishness as a problem of mixed Identity“, in : "We" and "the Others": European Societies in Search of Identity, Studies in Comparative History, Studia historica LIII, AUC, Philosophica et Historica 1–2000, Luďa Klusáková (ed.), Karolinum, Prague 2004, p. 167-193.

b) 2.4. Austro-hungarian society at the turn of the century – urban culture; literature as a source (Sandor Marai, Elias Canetti, Stephan Zweig and others)

- discussion of the sources and literature

Mid-term test

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7th seminar

a) 6.4. Society in the CEE and SEE in the Interwar period I.

The lecture will be based on the «micro-historical» accounts of the «ordinary» people. Special attention will be drawn to their representation of the «big» political events and structures.

b) 9.4. Society in the CEE and SEE in the Interwar period II

Mandatory reading will be selected from:

M. HADŽIŠEHOVIĆ, A Muslim Woman in Tito’s Yugoslavia, Texas University 2003.

Optional readings:

M. BUCUR, Eugenics and Modernization in Interwar Romania, Pittsburgh 2002.

E. LACKOVÁ, Narodila jsem se pod šťastnou hvězdou, Praha 1997.

H. SETON-WATSON, Eastern Europe between the Wars, 1918-1941, Cambridge 1945.

Film: Obchod na korze (Czechoslovakia, 1965)

8.th seminar

a) 13.4. Society in the CEE and SEE in the Interwar and the World War Two - Introduction

b) 16.4. Society in the CEE and SEE in the Interwar and the World War Two – discussion based on the reading.

Mandatory reading will be specified

a) 20.4. Everyday Life and Popular Culture during the Communism

Identifying the limits of the „communist welfare state“ the question of Americanization as a popular resistance will be open.

b) 23.4. Everyday Life and Popular Culture during the Communism - discussion

Mandatory reading will be selected from:

S. BOYM, The Future of Nostalgia, New York 2001.

Optional readings:

S. PENC, M. HLAVSA, Bez ohňů je underground, Praha 2001.

S. P. RAMET, Rocking the State: Rock Music and Politics in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, London 1994.

10.

a) 27.4. Everyday Life and Popular Culture during the Communism – second part

Addressed topic will be the «home culture» or the «grey zone» of the privacy during the communist regime.

b) 30.4. Everyday Life and Popular Culture during the Communism – discussion

Mandatory reading will be selected from:

M. de CERTEAU, L'invention du quotidien, I, II, Paris 1980.

J. FISKE, Understanding Popular Culture, Boston 1989.

11.

a) 4.5 Popular Culture in the 1990s: Postsocialism, Privatization and Rise of Nationalism

After 1989 the CEE and SEE societies have undergone deep transformation. In many cases the transformation of the society is also documentable in the research of popular culture.

b) 7.5. Popular Culture in the 1990s:

Mandatory reading will be selected from:

E. D. GORDY, The Culture of Power in Serbia: Nationalism and the Destruction of Alternatives, Pensylvania University 1999.

D. UGREŠIĆ, Culture of Lies: Antipolitical Essays, Pennsylvania State University 1998.

Optional readings:

N. JOHANISOVÁ, Living in the Cracks. A look at Rural Social Enterprises in Britain and the Czech Republic, Dublin 2005

K. VERDERY, What Was Socialism and What Comes Next?, Princeton 1996.

Film: Dědictví aneb Kurvahošigutntag (Czech republic, 1993)

Final test – take away examination

12.

a) 11.5. Popular Culture in the 1990s: Postsocialism, Privatization and Rise of Nationalism (second part)

b) 13.5. Popular Culture in the 1990s discussion

Mandatory reading will be selected from:

L. HOLY, The Little Czech and the Great Czech Nation: National Identity and the Post-Communist Social Transformation, Cambridge 1996.

Optional readings:

H. HAUKANES, Velké dramata, bežné životy. Postkomunistické zkušenosti na českém venkově, Praha 2004.

Final test – return in take away examination

13. seminar

18.5. a Evaluation of the course-papers presented by MA students

20.5. b conclusions of the seminar, evaluation of examinations.

Literature reflected in the course:

I. ANDRIĆ, The Bridge on the Drina, Chicago 1977.

S. BOYM, The Future of Nostalgia, New York 2001.

M. BUCUR, Eugenics and Modernization in Interwar Romania, Pittsburgh 2002.

M. de CERTEAU, L'invention du quotidien, I, II, Paris 1980. (available in English)