Syllabus
For the Academic year 2018/2019 to be modified 1. And 2. Course, 27.2.2018: Various aspects of Night:
A. Organizational introduction
Structure and functioning of courses, conditions to fulfill to obtain an attestation/a note, spreading of texts, personal presentations, questions.
B. Projection of Film: Night on Earth, director Jim Jarmusch, 1991, 129 min.
C. Activity, Discussion: Various aspects of Night 3. And 4. Course, 13.3.2018: Socialist images of Night (focused on the Stalinism)
A. Lecture: Stalinist images of Night
The lecture draws the basic features of the images of the Night in the Czechoslovak Stalinist mass culture. The lecture is articulated around three main topics: vigilance, revolution, work.
B. Presentations of texts: 1. Adams Bradley: The struggle for the soul of the Nation, Lanham 2006, Chapter 1: World War II and the East European Revolution, p. 9-38. 2. Adams Bradley: The struggle for the soul of the Nation, Lanham 2006, Chapter 4: The Communist Aim: The Creation of a New Czechoslovakia, p. 89-103. 3. Fitzpatrick Sheila: Everyday Stalinism. Ordinary life in Extraordinary Times, Oxford 1999, Chapter 1: The Party is always right, p. 14-39. 4. Fava Valentina: Between American Fordism and ‘Soviet Fordism’: Czechoslovak Way towards Mass Production, in Balász Apor – Péter Apor – E. A. Rees (eds.), The Sovietization of Eastern Europe. New Perspectives on the Postwar Period, Washington 2008, p. 47-64. 5. Halfin Igal: From Darkness to Light: Class, Consciousness and Salvation in Revolutionary Russia, Pittsburg 2000, Introduction: Marxism and Russia, p. 1-38. 5. And 6. Course, 27.3.2018: Stalinist Nights, Analyzing film images
A. Projection of Film: King of Šumava, director Karel Kachyňa, 1959, 93 min.
B. Activity, Discussion: Stalinist nights
C. Lecture: Analyzing film image, methods and concepts of the image analysis, Postwar Film Industry in Czechoslovakia
The lecture focuses on the production modes of the postwar Czechoslovak cinematography and on the possible analytical approaches to the film media.
D. Presentation of texts: 1. Sczepanik Petr: The State-Socialist Mode of Production and the Political History of Production Culture, In Szczepanik Petr – Vonderau Patrick: Behind the Screen: Inside European Production Cultures, New York 2013, p. 113-134. 2. Skopal Pavel: The Cinematic Shapes of the Socialist Modernity Program: Ideological and Economic Parameters of Cinema Distribution in the Czech Lands, 1948-1970, In Biltereyst Daniel – Maltby Richard, Meers Philippe: Cinema, Audiences and Modernity. New Perspectives on European Cinema History, London - New York 2011, p. 81-98. 3. Mohrmann Sibylle: Male Heroes and Female Comrades: the Image of the Russians in Soviet Films in Post-War Berlin, in Balász Apor – Péter Apor – E. A. Rees (eds.), The Sovietization of Eastern Europe. New Perspectives on the Postwar Period, Washington 2008, p. 115-132. 4. Gorsuch Anne E.: From Iron curtain to Silver screen: Imagining the West in the Khrushchev Era, in Péteri György: Imagining the West in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, Pittsburg 2010, p. 153-171 5. Alexei Yurchak, Everything was forever until it was no more: The last Soviet generation, Princeton 2006, Chapter 5: Imaginary West: The Elsewhere of Late Socialism, s. 158-206. 7. And 8. Course, 10.4.2018: Living the Night, Living the Postwar Night City
A. Projection of film: Prague in Night (Praha v záři světel), director Svatopluk Inneman, 1928, 22 min.
B. Lecture: Living the Postwar Night City: a case of Prague
The Lecture is articulated around topics of Lightening, Sociability, Criminality, and Representations of the Night City.
C. Presentation of texts: 1. Horváth Sándor: Stalinism Reloaded: Everyday life in Stalin-City, Hungary, Bloomington 2017, Chapter 7: Bars, p. 195-216. 2. Horváth Sándor: Stalinism Reloaded: Everyday life in Stalin-City, Hungary, Bloomington 2017, Chapter 9: Slums, p. 233-246. 3. Crowley David: Paris or Moscow? Warsaw Architects and the Image of the Modern City in the 1950s, in Péteri György: Imagining the West in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, Pittsburg 2010, p. 105-130. 4. Vari Alexander: Nocturnal Entertainments, Five Star Hotels, and Youth Counterculture: Reinventing Budapest´s Nightlife under Socialism, in Giustino Cathleen – Plum C.J. – Vari Alexander: Socialist Escapes: Breaking Away from Ideology and Everyday Routine in Eastern Europe, New York 2013, p. 187-209. 5. Havelková Barbara: Blaming all Women: On Regulation of Prostitution in State Socialist Czechoslovakia, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 2016, p. 1- 42. 9. And 10. Course, 24.4.2018: Living the Night City: space, social practices, dictatorship
A. Lecture: Host lecture, Andrey Vozyanov (Social Anthropologist, Graduate School for East and South-east European Studies, Regensburg): Night transport politics in Central and Eastern Europe
B. Lecture: City, space, social practices, dictatorship
The lecture focuses on the concepts of the Space, the City, and on the question of the approaches towards the social practices under the dictatorships.
C. Presentation of texts: 1. Otter Chris: The Victorian Eye: A political History of Light and Vision in Britain 1800-1910, Introduction, p. 1-21. 2. Gwiazdzinski Luc: The Urban Night: a Space Time for Innovation and Sustainable Development, Journal of Urban Research, 2015, p. 1-14. 3. Lindenberger Thomas: Eigen-Sinn, Domination and No Resistance, Docupedia.de, p. 1-14. 4. De Certeau Michel: The Practice of Everyday Life, Berkeley 1984, General Introduction, p. 1-15. 5. Ludtke Alf - Fitzpatrick Sheila, Energizing the Everyday: On the Breaking and Making of Social Bonds in Nazism and Stalinism, in Fitzpatrick Sheila – Geyer Michael: Beyond Totalitarianism: Stalinism and Nazism compared, New York 2009, p. 266-301.
D. Activity, Discussion: Lights of the night city, Socialist and Capitalist city 11. And 12. Course, 15.5.2018: For the Night
A. Texts, Discussion, Defending Night: 1. Losing the Darkness: https://www.space.com/38872-light-pollution-increasing-globally.html 2. Why the nights are getting brighter – but not in a good way: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/nov/23/nights-getting-brighter-but-not-in-a-good-way
B. Projection of film: Prague nights (Pražské noci), directors Miloš Makovec, Jiří Brdečka, Evald Schorm, 1968, 102 min.
Annotation
The course is intended for the students of all cycles and disciplines, to the Erasmus and other programs´students, as to the Czech students. The course combines lectures, presentations by students, film projections, text readings and discussions around the topic of the Night and its representations and living practices in the postwar Czechoslovakia and the postwar Central Europe.
The aim of the course is to bring together ideas and to think about the different aspects of the “Night issue”. The course puts the representations of the Night and the Night living practices in the context of the postwar political, social and economic changes, which were connected to the establishment and stabilization of the Socialist dictatorships and to the course for the political, social and technical modernization.
The language of course is English, but communication in German, French and Czech is also accepted.