Remnants of Slavonic studies at the Department of Central European Studies, Faculty of Arts,Charles University, and their prospects
Abstract
The efforts of a former management of Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague, to transform philological Slavonic studies into area studies culminated in the 2011 split of the Institute of Slavonic and East European Studies into three separate departments along regional lines. At the newly established Department of Central European Studies, the integration of Western Slavonic (excluding Czech) studies with Hungarian and later also Romani studies opened up space for teaching and research that would focus on areal phenomena.
In order to clarify what has remained of Slavonic studies in the domain of study in such context, this paper first compares the course lists of former Slavonic Studies with those of the current Central European Studies programme. The paper then briefly overviews current Slavonic studies' topics and approaches in the domain of research carried out at the department.
Special attention is devoted to the fate of Sorbian studies, a traditional part of Slavonic studies in Prague. Finally, the paper summarizes the developments in 2014-2018, when several new elements of Slavonic studies were introduced, while the areal orientation was maintained at the same time.