FF:SUS_127 The Central-European Coffee-ba - Course Information

SUS_127 The Central-European Coffee-bar

Extent and Intensity

2/0/0. 4 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).
In-person direct teaching

Teacher(s)

Mgr. Miroslav Jeřábek, Ph.D. (lecturer), PhDr. Aleš Filip, Ph.D. (deputy)
PhDr. Dagmar Koudelková (alternate examiner)

Guaranteed by

PhDr. Dagmar Koudelková
Department of Musicology – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Ing. Alena Albíniová
Supplier department: Department of Musicology – Faculty of Arts

Prerequisites

The course presupposes interest in this field of study. Good knowledge of German is welcome.

Course Enrolment Limitations

The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 80 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/80, only registered: 0/80, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/80

fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with

there are 14 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display

Course objectives

The aim of this lecture cycle will be to make the students familiar with the tradition of coffee drinking and with the café culture in the geografical area of Central Europe. The lectures will be structured in such a way as to make the students more familiar with social, cultural and political history of central Europe in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Up to the mid-twentieth century, the culture of coffe drinking was a peculiar phenomenon within the Central European city culture. After the communist take-over, coffee shops in former Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary (as well in Balkan countries) were pushed out of public life. The last twenty years have witnessed a complicated and not entirely successful revival of the café life.

Learning outcomes

The student is able to explain the phenomenon of Central European cafés, politics, culture and art in the 20th century.

Syllabus

• 1. The history of coffee growing. The beginnings of coffee drinking traditions in Arabian and European countries. Professional literature, essays by George Steiner and Josef Kroutvor.
• 2. The spread of coffee drinking in Europe in the 17th century and the first half of the 18th century. Which Czech people drank coffee first?
• 3. Coffeehouse subject matter in European literature, drama and music of the 17th and 18th century.
• 4. Medieval coffeehouses in the 18th century. The culture of coffee, tea and chocolate drinking in aristocratic salons of the 18th century.
• 5. Coffeehouses, the Enlightenment and the French revolution. Coffeehouses and European revolutionary movement in the 1820s and 1830s.
• 6. Biedermeier and café. Central European conservative burgess society versus rebels and revolutionaries. Prague coffee shops and bars in the revolution year of 1848. Josef Václav Frič - a revolutionary or also a coffe connoisseur? Frič´s fateul Prague and Parisian cafés.
• 7. Prague and Brno coffeehouses and salons in the second half of the 19th century. European coffeehouses in the 19th century fine arts and literature.
• 8. Central European coffeehouses in historicism, Art Nouveau and modern style. The milieu of Vienna, Brno, Budapest, Bratislava, Krakow and Lviv.
• 9. Prague coffeehouses in Art Nouveau, modern style and functionalism. Prague bohemians and coffeehouses before 1914. The generation of Devětsil and surrealists in the interwar period.
• 10. Historicizing and functionalist coffeehouses in Brno. Brno coffeehouses in fiction and memoir literature.
• 11. Café as place of asylum. The phenomenom of Central European emigration after 1933, 1934 and 1938: German and Austrian emigrants in Prague and Brno. Coffeehouses during the occupation, closing down cafés after 1948. Coffee-shop owner as a class enemy.
• 12. Cafés, writers and literary magazines of the 1960s. Brno cafés Bellevue as a symbol of the period. Beer culture of the 1970s and 1980s in the Czechoslovak Republic versus the coffee-shop minory. Café as an object of privatization and restitution. Difficult renewal of coffee-shop culture after 1990.
• 13. Café Brno. City and coffee shops in the passage of time. Presentation of a 60-minute documentary (ČT Brno 2008).

Literature

required literature
• KROUTVOR, Josef. Café fatal : mezi Prahou, Vídní a Paříží : výtvarné črty. V Praze: Dauphin, 1998, 221 s. ISBN 80-86019-73-X. info
• DEJEAN, Joan E. Noc, kdy se zrodilo šampaňské : historie luxusního životního stylu od Ludvíka XIV. do současnosti. Translated by Lumír Mikulka. 1. vyd. Praha: Brána, 2006, 251 s. ISBN 8072432702. info

recommended literature
• KROUTVOR, Josef. Města a ostrovy. Vyd. 1. Praha: Arbor vitae, 2002, 205 s. ISBN 8090306527. info
• BRADSHAW, Steve. Kaviarenská spoločnosť, alebo, Život bohémov od Swifta po Dylana. Bratislava: Tatran, 1988. info
• ALTMAN, Karel, Lenka KUDĚLKOVÁ a Vladimír FILIP. Zmizelý svět brněnských kaváren. Brno 2008.
• DÖRFLOVÁ, Yvetta and Věra DYKOVÁ. Kam se v Praze chodilo za múzami : literární salony, kavárny, hospody a stolní společnosti. Vyd. 1. Praha: Vyšehrad, 2009, 239 s. ISBN 9788070219614. info
• BENDOVÁ, Eva. Pražské kavárny a jejich svět. Praha 2008.

not specified
• HEISE, Ulla. Kaffee und Kaffeehaus: eine Kulturgeschichte. Leipzig 1987.
• GUGITZ, Gustav. Das Wiener Kaffehaus. Wien 1940.
• NOVÝ, Otakar. Ohňostroj pražských barů a lokálů. Praha 1995.
• REINI, Leni Reiner. Kavárna nad Prahou. Praha 2001.
• JEŘÁBEK, Miroslav. Společenský život brněnských kaváren v prvních desetiletích 20. století. In: Brno v minulosti a dnes. Brno 2005.
• JEŘÁBEK, Miroslav. Zmizelý a současný svět brněnských kaváren. In: Rozrazil, 2008, č. 5..

Teaching methods

Lectures and class discussion.

Assessment methods

Essay writing and written test based on presented topics.

Language of instruction

Czech

Further Comments

The course is taught once in two years.
The course is taught: every week.

• Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2025, recent)
  
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