Syllabus
Selected topics:
Introduction - formal requirements, definitions of Culture and Central Europe
Modern art at the turn of 19th and 20th Centuries
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 and role of Culture in Resistance
Memory of WWII
Communist Architecture and Art
Sport as a cultural phenomenon
Role of culture in the dissent and revolutions of 1989/1990
Final conclusion and discussion
Annotation
Culture is one of the fields where we can analyse substantial changes of the Central European societies. The course starts with the end of the traditions of the 19th century, covers the reactions to the trauma of the WWI, birth of new media and mass culture in the interwar period and role of the culture during the WWII.
After 1945 mainly reflexive topics such as memory, relations of societies, cultures and politics are studied. The seminar is non-descriptive, concentrates on selected key topics.