Syllabus
Course syllabus: 1. Introduction into history (goals, approaches to studied topics, examples of main questions to focus on). 2. Methodology. Objectivity of history and historians. Sources critique. How not to be fooled by propaganda? 3. Historical Consciousness and Collective memory. The ways of their formation, sources and theoretical approaches to their study (Talcott Parsons'. Jiří Šubrt's, and Miroslav Hroch's models). 4-5. Symbolical centres and symbolical figures. Theoretical definition. Charles IV, the Father of the Country, and the Golden Age of the Bohemian Crown. 6. Patrons saints of the Czech Crown. Medieval statehood and its symbols. 7. The Good King Wenceslaus and his tale. 8-9. Ideology and historical myths. Jan Hus, Hussites and Hussite revolution: transformation of their interpretation in the course of history. 10. Jan Hus and Jan Nepomuk: two saints, two sides. 11. Czech Music Avantgarde: The Plastic Peoples of Universe. 12. History of Marshal Ivan Konev. 13. Final discussion. Student's presentations.
Recommended Reading:
Bolton J., Worlds of Dissent. Charter 77, The Plastic People of the Universe, and Czech Culture under Communism, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass. 2012.Havel, V., „The power of the powerless", in: Václav Havel, John Keane (eds.), The power of the powerless: citizens against the state in central - eastern Europe, London: Hutchinson, 1985.or: http://www.vaclavhavel.cz/index.php?sec=6&id=2&kat&from=6&setln=2Herold, V., Jan Hus - a Heretic, a Saint, or a Reformer?. In: Herold, Vilém. Communio viatorum. A theological journal. 45, č. 1, (2003,) pp. 5-23.Machovec, M., (ed.), Views from the inside: Czech underground literature and culture (1948-1989): manifestoes - testimonies – documents, Praha: Ústav české literatury a literární vědy, Filozofická fakulta Univerzity Karlovy, 2006.Paces, C. J., Religious Heroes for a Secular State. Commemorating Jan Hus and Saint Wenceslas in 1920s Czechoslovakia. Paces, Cynthia Jean. In: Staging the Past. The Politics of Commemoration in Habsburg Central Europe, 1848 to the Present. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 2001, pp. 199-225.Pánek, J. (eds.), A History of the Czech Lands, Prague: Carolinum Press, 2009.Werner, M., „Jan Palach Remembered." Marian Werner. In: Z Londýna opět něco, co nevíte: sborník přednášek Britské skupiny Společnosti pro vědu a umění, London: Britská skupina SVU, 2016, pp. 473-491.
Annotation
The course deals with symbolical figures of the Czech history (e.g., St. Wenceslaus, Jan Žižka, Jan Hus and many others) and changes in the interpretation of their role throughout history.
The attention will be focused on an interaction between ideology and history, history and historical myths, collective memory and historical consciousness. The aim of the course is to familiarize students with significant milestones and symbolical figures of the Czech history as well as to demonstrate the ambiguity of their interpretation due to different political and historical contexts.
An educational excursion (National Memorial on the Vítkov Hill) is a part of the syllabus.