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Everyday Life Under Socialism: Strategies and Practices

Class at Faculty of Arts |
AVES01039

Syllabus

Syllabus:

1.     Introduction.

2.     Methodology. What is a cultural history?

3.     Socialist distribution system: a society of (in)equality?

4.     Informal practices: shortages and a shadow network of mutual favors and connections (“blat”)

5.     Socialist luxury, fashion and VIP shops (Tuzex and others)

6.     Style Hunters: a bright subculture of the Khrushchev Thaw. “Bad bourgeois” taste vs. the “proper socialist” style.

7.     Culture of socialist underground: protest or fashion?

8.     Denunciation as a social and a personal strategy

9.     Religious and church: from elimination to mocking

10.   Mass gymnastics: Faster, Higher, Stronger

11.   Ideology, changing women’s role and some gender stereotypes

12.   Final discussion. Presentations.

Annotation

Annotation and Course Description: The course is intended to broaden understanding of personal strategies, motivations, practices, everyday life and routine under the socialism. These aspects (i.e. grey network of “blat”, inequality of a Socialist distribution system and others) were common for all countries of the Socialist bloc such as Czechoslovakia, Soviet Union, Poland etc. This fact gives a universal dimension to the course and provides a shared platform for studying of the Central- and East European societies under the Socialism.

Schedule: Tuesday, 9:10 - 10:45 teacher's email: alena.markova@fhs.cuni.cz