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Lecturer(s)
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Polách Vladimír, Mgr. Ph.D.
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Course content
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1. The social role of a book: book studies vs. literary science or history of literature. 2. A book for the whole nation: Anderson?s ?imagined community? and the Czech national awakening in the 1st half of 19th century; the ossianic ?ancient Czech manuscripts?. 3. The case of Karel Hynek Macha: from obscure self-publishing to the romantic national poet. 4. Nemcova?s Babicka (Grandmother) as a symbol of bygone times (that never were?). 5. Jaroslav Hašek: The Good Soldier Švejk. The uses of ?Švejk?. 6. Orbis publishing house: inter-war culture diplomacy. Books as propaganda. 7. Julius Fucik: Notes from the Gallows. The creation of myths and legends during Communism. 8. The Purge: attempts at directive management of literary life and reading (1930s-1950s). 9. Book in exile and the cultural suicide of Communist Czechoslovakia. 10. The secret life of books: antiquaries, Book Thursdays, samizdat, private networks. 11. 1990s: return of the commercial book and mass-market paperback. 12. The future of the book: research of contemporary reading patterns.
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Learning activities and teaching methods
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Dialogic Lecture (Discussion, Dialog, Brainstorming), Projection (static, dynamic), Group work
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Learning outcomes
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The seminar will present the book not as an object of literary science, but as an object with symbolic, cultural, and ideological functions.
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Prerequisites
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unspecified
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Assessment methods and criteria
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Student performance
Active participation (80 %), speech, team work, reading
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Recommended literature
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Alfred, Thomas. The Labyrinth of the Word: Truth and Representation in Czech Literature. München : R. Oldenbourg Verlag, 1995.
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Holy, Ladislav. The Little Czech and the Great Czech Nation. National Identity and the Post-Communist Social Transformation. Cambridge UP 2009.
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Sayer, Derek. (1998). The Coasts of Bohemia: A Czech History. Princeton.
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S?mejkalova?, Jiřina. Cold war books in the "other" Europe and what came after. Leiden: Brill 2010.
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Steiner, Peter. The Deserts of Bohemia: Czech Fiction and Its Social Context. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 2000.
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Šmejkalová, J. - Lishaugen, R. Sites of book memory: czech home libraries under the communist regime (1948-1989). Libraries: Culture, History, and Society, 7, 2023, pp. 25-45.
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