Civilisations d'Europe centrale II

Culture, literature, history of Central Europe. The course focuses on the contemporary history of Czechoslovakia. The aim is to explore, analyse and observe the so-called "dissident" movements that developed in Czechoslovakia at the end of the 1970s. The reflection will be based on the emergence of innovative angles of analysis that have challenged the central and eastern European dissident theme by deploying research perspectives that complexify the phenomenon of dissidence by considering it as a plurivocal and transnational paradigm. In order to make the paradigm of dissent more complex and dynamic, and to break with a monolithic and heroic vision of it, it will then be considered from the point of view of its international resonance and to observe how it was reverberated within the Western media that highlighted it. As this course is given at the ULB, special attention will be paid to the echo that the dissidence obtained in Belgium. Finally, in response to the need to broaden the field of investigation specific to Central and Eastern European dissidence, the relations that Czechoslovak dissidents maintained with their Polish and Russian counterparts will be considered. In this way, the phenomenon of dissidence is placed in a broader geopolitical context and can be seen as a transnational phenomenon.

To develop the theme of Central European dissidence as a plurivocal, protean and transnational issue.   

Required and Corequired knowledge and skills

SLAV-B200 Central European Civilizations I - For all programmes
5 credits - Petra JAMES (Coordinator) and Dorota WALCZAK

Required and corequired courses

The course is given by means of power point presentations, short presentations by students, reading of texts made available on the UV, intervention of a Czech professor.

Contribution to the teaching profile

To question a phenomenon in a transdisciplinary way (literary, historical, cultural, philosophical-political) in order to render its complexity. Focus on the political and societal issues that run through and motivate the narration of a phenomenon.

References, bibliography, and recommended reading

• Bolton, Jonathan. Worlds of Dissent: Charter 77, The Plastic People of the Universe, and Czech Culture under Communism. Harvard University Press, 2012.
• Brinton, Aspen E. Confronting Totalitarian Minds: Jan Patočka on Politics and Dissidence. Karolinum Press, 2021.
• Chenu, Roselyne. En lutte contre les dictatures : le Congrès pour la liberté de la culture (1950-1978). Éditions du Félin, 2018.
• Christofferson, Michael Scott. Les intellectuels contre la gauche : L’idéologie antitotalitaire en France, 1968-1981. Agone, 2009.
• Dissidences. Presses Universitaires de France, 2005.
• Entangled Protest: Transnational Approaches to the History of Dissent in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Dirigé par Robert Brier. Fibre, 2013.
• Framing Public Life: Perspectives on Media and Our Understanding of the Social World. Édité par Stephen D. Reese et al. Routledge, 2001.
• Garton Ash, Timothy. La chaudière : Europe centrale 1980-1990. Gallimard, 1990.
• Gorbanevskaia, Natalia. Midi, place Rouge : Dossier de la manifestation du 25 août 1968 sur la place Rouge. Robert Laffont, 1970.
• Grémion, Pierre. PARIS-PRAGUE : La gauche face au renouveau et à la régression tchécoslovaque : 1968-1978. Julliard, 1985.
• Havel, Václav. Essais politiques. Calmann-Lévy, 1989.
• Jan Patočka : První skica k podobizně. OIKOYMENH, 2017.
• Jednoho dne se v našem zelináři cosi vzbouří: eseje o Moci bezmocných. Édité par Jiří Suk et Kristina Andělová. Ústav pro soudobé dějiny AV ČR, 2016.
• Mayer, Françoise. Les Tchèques et leur communisme : Mémoires et identités politiques. Éditions de l'École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, 2003.
• Moyn, Samuel. The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010.
• Nový historismus/New Historicism. Édité par Jonathan Bolton. Host, 2007.
• Procès à Prague. Le V.O.N.S : Comité de défense des personnes injustement poursuivies. Petr Uhl, Vaclav Havel, Jiri Dienstbier, Vaclav Benda, Otta Bednarova et Dana Nemcova devant leurs juges. 22-23 octobre 1979. François Maspero, 1980.
• Pynsent, Robert B. Pátrání po identitě. H & H, 1996.
• Rezek, Petr. Filosofie a politika kýče. OIKOYMENH, 1991.
• Skilling, Harold Gordon. Samizdat and an Independent Society in Central and Eastern Europe. Ohio State University Press, 1989.
• Suk, Jiří et al. Šest kapitol o disentu. Ústav pro soudobé dějiny AV ČR, 2017.
• Suk, Jiří. Politika jako absurdní drama. Václav Havel v letech 1975- 1989. Paseka, 2013.
• Szulecki, Kacper. Dissidents in Communist Central Europe: Human Rights and the Emergence of New Transnational Actors. Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.
• Tucker, Aviezer. The Philosophy and Politics of Czech Dissidence from Patočka to Havel. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2000.
• Wciślik, Piotr. Dissident Legacies of Samizdat Social Media Activism : Unlicensed Print Culture in Poland 1976-1990. Routledge, 2021.

Course notes

• Université virtuelle

Contacts

Petra James
Tel : +32 (0)2 650 38 53
Mail :petra.james@ulb.be

Dorota WALCZAK
E-mail : Dorota.Walczak@ulb.be
Tel. : + 32 2 650 35 36

Astrid Muls
Email : Astrid.Muls@ulb.be
 

Campus

Solbosch

Method(s) of evaluation

• Personal work
• Written report

Personal work

Written report

Individual written work

Mark calculation method (including weighting of intermediary marks)

Grade based on the evaluation of a written work submitted by the students.

Language(s) of evaluation

• french