Syllabus
Introduction - formal requirements, definitions of Culture and Central Europe
Modern art at the turn of 19th and 20th Centuries - example of Architecture
Reflections of WWI in Culture and Art
New Media: development of press and book market, radio and film
"Popular Culture" for "Mass Society"?
Nazi cultural policy
Memory of WWII
Communist Architecture
Sport as a cultural phenomenon
Role of culture in the dissent and revolutions of 1989/1990
Final conclusion and discussion
Annotation
The most important changes in Central European societies can be studied on the example of culture. The course will cover the end of traditions in the second half of the 19th century, reactions to the traumatic experience of WWI, appearance of new media and mass culture in the interwar period, official and counter-official culture during the WWII.
After the war the reflexive topics, relations of society, culture and politics are covered. The course is non-descriptional, it concentrates only on selected key areas of culture and art.