CJLB105 Multilingualism of Czech countries from an intercultural perspective

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2025

The course is not taught in Spring 2025

Extent and Intensity
2/0/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Vlastimil Brom, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Mgr. Jan Budňák, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Mgr. Michal Fránek, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Mgr. Marie Hanzelková, Ph.D. (lecturer)
doc. Mgr. Šárka Havlíčková Kysová, Ph.D. (lecturer)
PhDr. Zdeněk Mareček, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Mgr. Bc. Iva Mikulová, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Mgr. Jakub Sichálek, Ph.D. (lecturer)
doc. Mgr. Aleš Urválek, Ph.D. (lecturer)
doc. Mgr. Zuzana Urválková, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. Mgr. Zuzana Urválková, Ph.D.
Department of German, Scandinavian and Netherland Studies – Faculty of Arts
Supplier department: Department of Czech Literature – Faculty of Arts (50,00 %), Department of German, Scandinavian and Netherland Studies – Faculty of Arts (50,00 %)
Timetable
except Mon 21. 4. to Sun 27. 4.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is offered to students of any study field.
The capacity limit for the course is 100 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/100, only registered: 0/100, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/100
Course objectives
The aim of the course is to provide students across faculties of the MUNI with insight into the multilingual and interculturally diverse environment of the Bohemian lands from the Middle Ages to the mid-20th century. The course seeks to critically revise the widespread notion that the Bohemian lands were merely a stage for the "national history" and "national literature" of the Czechs and that everything else came from "outside" and was "foreign." In contrast to this notion, the course will present a series of themes, texts and situations that illustrate the thesis that the culture and history of the Bohemian lands was much more a site of the intermingling of cultural circles and languages. It was therefore a typical Central European region that can be understood on the basis of concepts of plurality rather that monoculturalism. The lectures and discussions on the texts will be led by teachers of various disciplines of the Faculty of Arts: German Studies, Czech Studies, Theatre Studies, History.
Learning outcomes
Upon completion of the course, the student will be able: - to approach critically the narratives appealing to the cultural or linguistic homogeneity of a certain area (e.g. Czech lands), - to notice different forms of interculturality (being together, side by side, in each other, against each other) and to understand them as situationally conditioned staging of cultural proximity or distance, - to consider models of collective identities (e.g. nation) and to understand them as constructions produced through texts, symbols, positionings, - to work with texts and other cultural artefacts in terms of interculturality, - to perceive (not only) Central Europe not as a fighting ground of nations, but as a space of intermingling cultures and languages.
Syllabus
  • Preliminary order of lectures:
  • Jan Budňák (ÚGNN): Introduction to interculturality and multilingualism: Czech lands as an intercultural and multilingual space
  • Vlastimil Brom (ÚGNN): Czech and German Dalimil and other chronicles
  • Jakub Sichálek (UČJ): Ploughman from Bohemia
  • Jan Budňák (ÚGNN): German Cosmopolitans and Freethinkers of the First Republic
  • Zuzana Urválková (ÚČL): Examples of multilingualism in the Czech-German cultural context (publishing and publishing operations)
  • Michal Fránek (ÚČL): Semantics of places and symbols in Czech and German poetry in Brno
  • Zdeněk Mareček (ÚGNN): "I am a butcher and you nationalities are shit". On the linguistic situation in Brno 1908-1928
  • Aleš Urválek (ÚGNN): Czech and German national, international and transnational projects and dreams
  • Jiří Němec (HistÚ): Controversies about history in the Czech lands in the path of nationalism
  • Šárka Havlíčková Kysová (KDS): Bedřich Smetana in the context of Wagnerianism
  • Iva Mikulová (KDS). Pařízek
  • Jiří Trávníček (ext. ÚČL).
Literature
  • HROCH, Miroslav. Hledání souvislostí : eseje z komparativních dějin Evropy. Vydání třetí, v Karolinu. Praha: Univerzita Karlova, Nakladatelství Karolinum, 2022, ii, 354. ISBN 9788024651507. URL info
  • Kompendium německé literatury českých zemí. Edited by Peter Becher - Steffen Höhne - Jörg Krappmann - Manfred Weinberg, Tr. Vydání první. Praha: Academia, 2022, 650 stran. ISBN 9788076710702. info
  • Jak psát transkulturní literární dějiny? Edited by Václav Petrbok - Václav Smyčka - Matouš Turek - Ladislav Futtera. Vydání první. Praha: Ústav pro českou literaturu AV ČR, v.v.i., 2019, 286 stran. ISBN 9788074702686. info
  • MACURA, Vladimír. Znamení zrodu a české sny. V tomto uspořádání vydá. Praha: Academia, 2015, 658 stran. ISBN 9788020025067. info
  • ŘEPA, Milan. Moravané, Němci, Rakušané : vlasti moravských Němců v 19. století. Praha: Historický ústav, 2014, 261 s. ISBN 9788072862269. info
  • ANDERSON, Benedict R. O'G. Představy společenství : úvahy o původu a šíření nacionalismu. Edited by Martin Procházka, Translated by Petr Fantys - Miloslav Uličný. 1. české vyd. Praha: Karolinum, 2008, 274 s. ISBN 9788024614908. info
  • ŘEPA, Milan. Moravané nebo Češi? : vývoj českého národního vědomí na Moravě v 19. století. 1. vyd. Brno: Doplněk, 2001, 221 s. ISBN 8072390848. info
  • GEERTZ, Clifford. Interpretace kultur : vybrané eseje. Translated by Hana Červinková - Václav Hubinger - Hedvika Humlíčková. Vydání první. Praha: Sociologické nakladatelství, 2000, 565 stran. ISBN 8085850893. info
  • KOŘALKA, Jiří. Češi v habsburské říši a v Evropě 1815-1914 : sociálněhistorické souvislosti vytváření novodobého národa a národnostní otázky v českých zemích. Vyd. 1. Praha: Argo, 1996, 354 s. ISBN 8072030221. info
  • HROCH, Miroslav. Evropská národní hnutí v 19. století : společenské předpoklady vzniku novodobých národů. Vyd. 1. Praha: Svoboda, 1986, 397 s. info
Teaching methods
Teaching will be organized as a combination of lectures and close reading of selected short texts (10-15 pages), ideally in the form of discussion. The texts will be made available at the beginning of the semester. E-learning support for the course will be provided through the MUNI e-learning environment (IS).
Assessment methods
1. Attendance at lectures is desirable. 2. Reading short (10-15 pages) impulse texts to be analyzed and discussed during the lecture is desirable. 3. Intermediate assignments: short answers (2 sentences) to 4 questions for  10 lectures (out of 12 lectures). The questions will be available in the e-learning course (IS) and the answers will be submitted there. 4. Final part of the course completion: three reflections on the texts analyzed in the lectures. Each reflection is 1-2 standard pages long (1800-3600 characters including spaces) and consists of an introductory contextualization of the text, its summary and its evaluation (topicality, polemics, alternatives, problems...). Reflections are submitted to the submission room in  IS.
Language of instruction
Czech
Further Comments
Study Materials
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