LFU:online

Students know the most important epochs and neuralgic points of Yugoslav history; are familiar with the reflection of history in central works of Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian literature and culture and are able to assess the significance that Yugoslavia still has in contemporary literature and culture.

As early as the 19th century, the peoples of the Balkans sought to emancipate themselves from the Ottoman Empire and the Austro-Hungarian monarchy through various alliance projects. The desire to unite the southern Slavs in an alliance intensified with the outbreak of the First World War. Writers such as Miroslav Krleža, Miloš Crnjanski and Ivo Andrić supported this initially fictitious Yugoslavia project, which was realised in 1918, with various texts.

With the invasion of the German Wehrmacht in 1941, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia disintegrated into different regions, which were characterised on the one hand by collaboration and on the other by occupation. The literary reflection of this era is correspondingly problematic and is in part only being done in the present day. The situation is different when it comes to the reconstruction of the socialist state of Yugoslavia, which has been staged in partisan films since 1945. Beginning in the 1960s, the weaknesses of the socialist union also come to the fore.

After the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, memories, nostalgia and melancholy remain, which extend to the present day in an astonishingly intense way.

The following works are available for selection in the course, which can be dealt with depending on the number of students and their interests.All texts are available in translation, so that those interested in literature and culture without knowledge of Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian are also welcome. Other text suggestions are also possible.

Miroslav Krleža: Hrvatski Bog Mars (Der kroatische Gott Mars); Miloš Crnjanski: Jugoslaviji (An Jugoslawien) und andere Gedichte; Ivo Andrić Gospođica (Das Fräulein), Bife Titanik (Büffet Titanik); Desanka Maksimović: Krvava bajka (Blutiges Märchen); Bora Ćosić: Ulogo moje porodice u svetskoj revoluciji (Die Rolle meiner Familie in der Weltrevolution); David Albahari: Mamac (Mutterland), Danas je sreda (Heute ist Mittwoch); Aleksandr Hemon: The Question of Bruno; Ivana Sajko: Povijest moje obitelji od 1941 do 1991 (Geschichte meiner Familie von 1941 bis 1991)

preparatory reading of primary literature by students; input by the course leader; oral student presentations, discussion, short written assignments.

regular attendance; regular preparatory reading; oral presentations; written works

will be completed in the course of February