LFU:online

Acquiring reading comprehension skills regarding historical documents and films and secondary literature, reflection skills regarding methodical questions, presentation and discussion skills, improvement of academic writing.

Regime Change as Media History: From Bohemia to the Czech Republic

The history from early modern Bohemia to today’s Czech Republic is characterized by many upheavals. The political and social change of this Central European country between East and West will be analyzed from the perspectives of media history: We will focus on key (media) events such as the Defenestration of Prague at the beginning of the Thirty Years' War, the 1848 revolutions and the emergence of a Czech national movement in the 19th century, up to the founding of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918 and its breakup in the Sudeten Crisis of 1938/9. The Beneš-Decrees after the end of the war and the forced transformation into a communist state still have an influence on the country today. For this period, we will look particularly at the media work of opposition actors such as Václav Havel and the international reverberations of the Charter 77 up to the successful Velvet Revolution in 1989. We will analyze and contextualize media such as pamphlets, newspapers and their cartoons, press photography, and recent films and graphic novels.

No Czech language skills are required (of course an advantage). The research literature and sources are available in German and English.

Reading and discussing primary sources and secondary literature; presentations in class and written papers.

Seminar participants will be required to attend lecture; to read and prepare texts, actively participate in discussions, present one topic (and prepare a handout) and write a paper.
 

Will be announced

Positive assessment of compulsory module 1

No Czech language skills are required (of course an advantage). The research literature and sources are available in German and English.

Online registration necessary!