Sylabus
COURSE STRUCTURE
1. October 15 (lecture) In search of “authentic” Czech culture: From the High Middle Ages until Romantism.
2. October 22 (walk) Mythic Czech past and Romantic Nationalism (visit to the Vyšehrad site).
3. October 29 (lecture) Czech traditional folk culture between imagined past and constructed present: Theories, genres, practices.
4. November 5 (lecture) Invention of Czech traditional folk culture in the late 1800s.
5. November 12 (walk) Czech traditional culture as symbol of Czech politics and Art Nouevau (visit to the Ethnographic Museum).
6. November 19 (lecture) Folkloristics and Volkskunde as “scientific” approach to traditional culture.
7. December 3 (walk) Czech vernacular culture as object of academic study (second visit to the Ethnographic Museum).
8. December 10 (lecture) Traditional Czech culture as public and political performance from the 1920s until the 1980s.
9. December 17 (walk) Czech traditional culture in contemporary public space (walk around the Old Town).
10. January 7 (lecture) Commodification of traditional Czech culture: tourism, heritage and popular culture. (there is NO lecture on November
26)
Anotace
The introductory course open both for international and Czech students presents general overview of vernacular culture of the Czech lands: both its original “authentic” expressions, genres, artefacts and performances expressed by various traditional folk groups of various ethnic (Czech, German, Jewish) and religious (Catholic, Protestant,
Jewish) subcultures, and also later its renditions by literature and other arts, mass media and nationalistic, socialist and postsocialist politics.
Firstly, we introduce a range of theoretical approaches to study Czech traditional folk culture, exploring the intersection between collective and local memory, popular entertainment, mass media, popular culture and broader political and historical contexts within the Central and Eastern Europe. We will analyse history of discussions on Czech folklore, starting with the High Middle Ages and Bohemian Reformation (folktales and exempla), followed by Humanism (historical and local legends and proverbs), the Enlightenment (folk beliefs and local legends), Romantism and Romantic Nationalism (folk songs and folk poetry) and Art Nouevau (folk art and material culture), ending with birth of academic interest in folklore in the end of the 19th century. We will also try to interpret possible cultural specifics of Czech traditional folk culture – especially folktales and legends, but also more contemporary folkloric genres: urban legends, jokes, graffiti, and memes.
Secondly, building on knowledge of these genologic and conceptual approaches, we will examine several examples of political uses and misuses of Czech traditional folk culture during the 20th and 21st century by various political (and seemingly apolitical) ideologies such as romantism, Czech and German nationalism, Czech
Marxism, state socialism, and neoliberalism.
Integral part of the course will be short guided walks and tours to specific places connected with Czech traditional folk culture (ghost walk in the Old Town, walk to Vyšehrad, visit to the Ethnographic Museum, and possible weekend trip to Open Air Museum in Kouřim).
Requirements for the students will comprise final practical essay and discussion during its presentation.