COURSE STRUCTURE

1. October 15 (lecture)

In search of “authentic” Czech culture: From the High Middle Ages until Romantism.

2. October 22 (walk)

Mythic Czech past and Romantic Nationalism (visit to the Vyšehrad site).

3. October 29 (lecture)

Czech traditional folk culture between imagined past and constructed present:

Theories, genres, practices.

4. November 5 (lecture)

Invention of Czech traditional folk culture in the late 1800s.

5. November 12 (walk)

Czech traditional culture as symbol of Czech politics and Art Nouevau (visit to the Ethnographic Museum).

6. November 19 (lecture)

Folkloristics and Volkskunde as “scientific” approach to traditional culture.

7. December 3 (walk)

Czech vernacular culture as object of academic study (second visit to the Ethnographic Museum).

8. December 10 (lecture)

Traditional Czech culture as public and political performance from the 1920s until the 1980s.

9. December 17 (walk)

Czech traditional culture in contemporary public space (walk around the Old Town).

10. January 7 (lecture)

Commodification of traditional Czech culture: tourism, heritage and popular culture.

(there is NO lecture on November 26)