Sylabus
1) Introduction: Post-1620 exiles from the Bohemian lands; Latin and vernacular literary production and its genres; textual practices and strategies; new perspectives
2) Confessional identities and confessional polemics: refugee churches
3) How to cope with a crisis? The Labyrinth of the World and the Neo-Stoic Solution
4) Transfer of knowledge and self-presentation of exiles
5) Astrology, chronology and millenarianism: Simeon Partlicius and Jan Amos Comenius
6) Political and historical discourse: Pavel Stránský of Zápy, Ondřej Habervešl, and Pavel Skála of Zhoř
7) Between history and martyrology: The History of the Bohemian Persecution in its Latin and vernacular versions
8) Projects of Universal Reform: Pansophia and the Reform of Human Affairs
9) New Prophets between radical religious discourse and political propaganda; Thirty Years War and visual propaganda
10) Correspondence networks, intellectual communication in exile, and the republic of letters
Anotace
The course will focus on Latin and vernacular works from the 1620s-60s, whose genres range between consolatory literature, astrological-chronological works, historical treatises, calendars, eschatological writings, prophecies and revelations. These works were written mostly in the milieu of the post-White-Mountain exile and responded to the experience of the shattering of all previous certainties and of a radical change in the religious, political and cultural situation in the Bohemian lands. The course aims to present not only major authors, such as Jan Amos Comenius, but also lesser known figures (Partlicius, Habervešl, Felgenhauer) and the topics related to the period scholarly discourse and political propaganda. The circulation of these texts within the exilic circles and in the context of wider communication networks of the European Republic of letters will be also discussed. Some of the texts will be available in English translations. Students are required to read and discuss extracts from these texts and secondary literature. Some of the topics listed below will take two classes.
1) Introduction: Post-1620 exiles from the Bohemian lands; Latin and vernacular literary production and its genres; textual practices and strategies; new perspectives
2) Confessional identities and confessional polemics: refugee churches
3) How to cope with a crisis? The Labyrinth of the World and the Neo-Stoic Solution
4) Transfer of knowledge and self-presentation of exiles
5) Astrology, chronology and millenarianism: Simeon Partlicius and Jan Amos Comenius
6) Political and historical discourse: Pavel Stránský of Zápy, Ondřej Habervešl, and Pavel Skála of Zhoř
7) Between history and martyrology: The History of the Bohemian Persecution in its Latin and vernacular versions
8) Projects of Universal Reform: Pansophia and the Reform of Human Affairs
9) New Prophets between radical religious discourse and political propaganda; Thirty Years War and visual propaganda
10) Correspondence networks, intellectual communication in exile, and the republic of letters