Prague: City of Cultures, City of Conflict (328-0-1)

Instructors

Martina Kerlova
847/491-5788
1880 Campus Drive, Kresge, Office 3325
Office Hours: Wednesdays 2-3:30 and by appointment

Meeting Info

Kresge Centennial Hall 2-339: Tues, Thurs 2:00PM - 3:20PM

Overview of class

This course examines Prague, one of the most beautiful and culturally vibrant cities in Europe. The city's magnificent streets and buildings both conceal and reveal a past full of multiethnic coexistence and interethnic conflict. The course follows the development of Prague over the past century from the interwar multicultural, democratic city to the postwar homogeneous, communist community, and ultimately to its present open and capitalist incarnation. The goal of our course will be to understand how Prague's various communities built the city and its culture(s) and how they struggled to control it. We will read and watch a range of literary and historical sources, including the story of the Golem and writings by Václav Havel, and Franz Kafka.

Learning Objectives

- To consider the productive (as well as the destructive) consequences of interethnic strife and political repression
- To investigate how cultural producers and consumers respond to divisive pressures from within and censorious pressures from without.
- To understand the contingent and malleable nature of national and other identities.
- To gain familiarity with the city of Prague and its culture

Evaluation Method

Attendance, Class participation, Paper or Project, Test, Presentation, Readings and Journals

Class Materials (Required)

Hrabal, Bohumil: I served the King of England.
Kovály, Heda Margolius: Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague, 1941-1968.
The two books will be available in Norris. All other readings and the film will be available on Canvas.

Class Notes

The course taught in English

Class Attributes

Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
Global Perspectives on Power, Justice, and Equity
SoC Individual and Social Behavior Distro