The course provides an introduction to cultural aspects of Czech and in broader sense Central European environment. It concentrates on major historical events and processes that have shaped future developments in the area and contributed to various aspects of the Czech national identity. Cultural awareness is initiated through readings and lectures followed by discussions. Visits to historically important sites in Prague and the Czech Republic are an integral part of the course. Participants are expected to gain background knowledge of the region’s history and civilization, to understand and examine issues of social changes and their effects on and interaction with social fabric of the nation.

The course presents the key events and data of Czech history. Students study how these events were interpreted in the process of establishment of modern Czech identity and how the meaning and form of these events were creatively re-interpreted to reach and support political goals. At the same time, the course deals with the way these re-interpretations have been reflecting in the art and bell letters helping thus to build long lasting cultural idioms. At least, the Czech society is analyzed from point of view whether, which, and to what extend, these cultural idioms still are effective among Czechs.

Out of Prague trips: Kutná Hora (whole-day trip), Český Krumlov and Southern Bohemia (two-day trip), Southern Moravia (two-day trip), Terezín and Litoměřice (whole-day trip)

Course requirements: regular attendance and reading (50-60 pages per week), 8-10 page (3 000 – 3 500 words) essay on a chosen topic, student’s journal on his/her experience of getting “below” the surface of Czech culture and society, final test from Czech cultural history.

The course meets for total of 7.5 class hours per week.

Petr Bílek

Full professor of Modern Czech Literature at the Department of Czech and Comparative Literature, Charles University. He belongs among the prominent Czech literary theorists and historians. He has published books on contemporary theories of interpretating narratives, on James Bond and his Communist Czech TV equivalent, on pop culture of the Communist era and on contemporary poetry, along with a number of articles in Czech, English, Italian, French, Russian, Japanese, German, Croatian, Hungarian, and Slovak. In 1994-1995, he was a Visiting Professor at Brown University. In 1995 he received a Mellon Post Doctoral Scholarship to continue his research there for two more years. He returned to Brown University as a Visiting Professor in Spring 2000. He has lectured in Hamburg, Uppsala, Stockholm, Budapest, Dublin, London, Glasgow, Lyon, Munich, Amsterdam, Aarhus, and at University of Texas, University of North Carolina, Florida International University, Columbia University, and Yale University. His most recent book Models of Representations in Czech Literary History (co-written by Vladimír Papoušek) has been published by Eastern European Monographs, Boulder, Colorado, in 2010.

Pavel Sládek

Dr. Sládek belongs to very promising and gifted specialists in Hebrew and Jewish Studies of the youngest generation in the Czech Republic. His main interest focuses on the traditional rabbinical literature starting with the Talmud and comments to it. His Ph.D. thesis was devoted to this topic. He lectures Jewish subjects such as traditional Hebrew literature and culture, history of Hebrew lettering, life and work of prominent Jewish personalities, both to Czech and foreign students at Charles University. He has been proving his high professional and teaching abilities also as an invited special lecturer of guided tours around Jewish sites in the Czech Republic.