Syllabus
SCHEDULE (subject to change)
Week 1 Let’s Start at the Beginning: Or, What IS Central Europe?
Keywords: Central Europe,
Screening: Jiří Menzel, Closely Watched Trains. (CZ)
Required Readings:
Milan Kundera, "The Tragedy of Central Europe"
Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, "Introduction" p.1-7,
Supplemental Readings:
Tony Judt, Borderlands, "The Coming of the Cold War" pp. 140-149
Week 2 What is ‘National’ Cinema, and How Do We Talk About It?
Keywords: Nationalism, Movie Making
Screening: Ján Kadár, Elmar Klos - The Little Shop on Main Street (SK)
Required Readings:
James Monaco, How to Talk About Film,Chapter 2 "Art and Technology" (selected excerpts)
Ľubica Mystríková, The Cinema of Central Europe, "Obchod na korze, A Shop on the High Street" pp. 97 - 105
Supplemental Reading:
Andrew Higson, Film and Nationalism "The Concept of National Cinemas" Pp. 52-67
Week 3 Politics and Form
Screening : Věra Chytilová, Daises (CZ)
Keywords: Formalism, Subversion, Gender
Readings:
Peter Hames "Věra Chytilová" p.183-201
Zdena Skupinová, "Sedikrásky / Daisies" p. 129-136
David Bordwell, Film History: An Introduction, p.406, 428.
Supplemental Reading:
Egon Bondy, Selected Poems
Vaclav Havel, et al. "Charta 77"
Week 4 Experimentation and Mixed Media (Midterm 1 Due)
Keywords: Mixed Media, Surrealism
Screenings: Jiří Trnka, The Hand, Jan Švankmejer, A Week at the House, Punch and Judy, Jiří Barta, The Disk jockey (CZ)
Aesthetic Dictionary: Experimental film
Readings:
Fernand Leger, "The Machine Aesthetic: Geometric Order and Truth"
Peter Hames- "Jan Švankmejer"
Supplemental Reading: Tony Judt Borderlands, "Into the Whirlwind" [excerpts], pp.187-193
Pyotr Bogatryev- "Czech Puppet Theatre and Russian Folk Theatre" http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/the_drama_review/v043/43.3bogatyrev.html
Week 5 Politics and Films
Screening: Jan Nemec, Report on the Party and the Guests (CZ)
Keywords: Allegory, Dissidence, Show Trials
Readings:
Antonín Liehm, Closely Watched Films "Jan Nemec",
Peter Hames - "Jan Nemec" 167-183
Tony Judt, Borderlands, pp. 199-203, 436-449
Supplemental Readings:
Franz Kafka, "The Trial" (excerpts)
Week 6 Visualistic Journeys, Experimental Views
Screening: Karel Zeman, A Deadly Invention. (CZ)
Keywords: Visuality, Experimentation
Readings:
Dudley Andrew, "Adaptation"
Sigfried Kracauer, "Basic Concepts" - p.147-158
Supplemental Readings:
J.P. Telotte A Distant Technology: Science Fiction and the Machine Age, "Technology and Distance". P.1-27
Josef Škvorecký, All the Bright Young Men and Women. P.14-30
Week 7 Surreal Slovakia: The Slovak Avant-Garde
Screening: Juraj Jakubisko, Birds, Orphans, and Fools (SK)
Keywords: Ethnocentrism, The Slovak Problem
Peter Hames: "The Slovak Wave: Juraj Jakubisko, Elo Havetta, and Dušan Hanák" p.212-223
Martin Votruba, "Historical and National Background of Slovak Filmmaking", KinoKultura. http://www.kinokultura.com/specials/3/votruba.shtml
Suplemental Reading:
Petra Hanáková, "The Anti-Czech Agenda of Slovak Films 1939-1945" (excerpts)
Stanislaus Kirchbaum, Slovakia : The Struggle for Survival, "The Slovak Problem"
Week 8 The Genre Film (Midterm 2 Due)
Keywords: Genre, Spectacle
Screening: Oldřích Lipský, Limonádový Joe (or the Horse Opera) (CZ)
Readings:
Thomas Schatz, "Film Genre and the Genre Film"
David Bordwell, Film History: An Introduction. "New Twists on Old Genres" p.314-316
Supplemental Reading:
Guy Debord, Society of the Spectacle, (excerpts)
Week 9 Folklore and Fantasy: Slovak Surrealism Revisited
Screening: Elo Havetta, Party in the Botanical Garden (SK)
Keywords: Visual Culture, Folklore, Magical Realism
Readings:
Jana Dudková, "Celebration in the Botanical Garden" KinoKultura. http://www.kinokultura.com/specials/3/dudkova.shtml
Václav Macek, "From Czechoslovak to Czech and Slovak Film", KinoKultura. http://www.kinokultura.com/specials/3/macek.shtml
Antonín Liehm : "Elo Havetta"
Supplemental Reading:
Andrew Sarris, "Notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962"
Week 10 Black Comedy
Screening : Miloš Forman, The Firemen’s Ball (CZ)
Keywords: Black Humor, Farce, Slapstick
Required Readings:
Peter Hames "The Forman School: Milos Forman" pp.106-127
David Bordwell, Film History : An Introduction. Pp.426-427
Supplemental Reading:
Milena Jelinek, "An Interview with Miloš Forman" Cross Currents. http://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/crossc/anw0935.1985.001/319:ANW0935.1985.001:25?page=root;rgn=subject;size=100;view=image;q1=Forman%2C+Milos
Week 11 Ethnicity, Diversity, and the Other: Minority Issues
Screening: Dušán Hanák, Rosy Dreams (SK)
Keywords: The Other, Roma, Normalization
Readings:
Jana Dudková, "The Problematic Other and the (Im)possibility of Cross-Cultural Dialogue in Slovak Cinema after 1993"
Eduard Said, Orientalism. "The Scope of Orientalism" pp.32-49
Supplemental Reading:
Jan Bernard, "About Gypsies, With Gypsies, Without Gypsies" (excerpts)
Week 12 : Life After Communism?
Screening: Jan Hřebejk, Cosy Dens (CZ)
Keywords: Nostalgia, Post-Communism
Required Readings:
Petra Hanáková, "Imagining National Identity in Czech Postcommunist Cinema",
Václav Havel "In a Time of Transition"
Supplemental Reading:
Slavoj Žižek, "Two Totalitarianisms", London Review of Books. http://www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n06/slavoj-zizek/the-two-totalitarianisms
Final Paper Due
Annotation
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
Bounded by the Germanic Empires to the West, the Russian Empire and Soviet Union to the East, Hungary and the former Ottoman holdings to the South, the Czech and Slovak lands have long been a site of conflict and creation. This course will explore the incredibly rich cinematic tradition of thought provoking and entertaining films produced in the areas of the Czech Republic (the primary area of focus), and Slovakia from the years following World War II up until the beginning of the 21st century. In addition to watching films, we will also be discussing cinema theory and approaches to "reading" films, not only as movies, but also as multi-faceted cultural artifacts. To this end, our readings will contain primary source materials on cinema history, historical research, film theory, and literature intended to broaden our understanding of Czech and Slovak culture, cinematic and otherwise.
While this syllabus gives a fairly accurate portrayal of the material we will cover, additional material may be assigned (and assigned material may be dropped or altered) at any time as the semester progresses, in order to better suit the needs and interests of the class.