Syllabus
1
Introductory lesson.
Periodization of Czech literary tradition – dominant and covering eras.
Key topics and questions reflected and influencing Czech and central European context.
Older Czech literature - historical context, new perspectives on forming Czech and central European identity. 2
Dawn of the modern literature. Romantic and wild.
Mácha – May 3
Emancipation of the nation and the most famous Czech female writer Božena Němcová educated in German, married Czech called Němec (Němec means German) and modern in literary expression.
Němcová – The Grandmother 4
Fin de siècle – beginning of the century – war and its reflections.
Hašek – Good Soldier Švejk. 5
A World Appart and Other Stories. Female writers in Czech literary tradition.
From Majerová to Součková.
Female short stories. 6
Avantgarde – utopia – antiutopia – politics – visions.
Čapek – R.U.R. 7
War and Jewish experience.
Weil – Medelson is on the Roof. Life with a Star. 8
Post was period. Re-examination of the truth. Under the Communist ideology.
Škvorecký – The Cowards, Hrabal – Too Loud a Solitude, Kundera – The Joke 9
Recognition of award-winning authors. Interdiction, Nobel-Prize and statue in the Congress.
Seifert – On the Waves of TSF, Havel – Audience 10
Velvet literature from 1989 up to now. 11
Final test.
Chosen books. 12
Closing the semester.
Annotation
The seminar aims to introduce students to Czech literature within the context of Central Europe. It deals with the authors, who transcend and/or define the Czech cultural space in a very significant way. The aim of the seminar is to introduce students to Czech literature from the beginning to the present, with an emphasis on the 20th century. The students are to bring in the perspectives of Czech literature from the perspectives of both speakers of other languages and other cultural backgrounds, and contextually broad view of individual works that can be placed in a cultural, historical and political context.
Thematic headings:
- excursus into older Czech literature - setting in the European context - national revival - the end 19th century - early 20th century - World War I - First Republic - Second World War - literature in the socialist period - post-revolutionary development - what is Czech literature and what language does it speak? - women's view of reality through the eyes of women writers - literature and totalitarianism - Czechness and Europeanness - official and unofficial - the role of the canon - trends and currents - critical reflections - post-revolutionary limitless space