Last update: Mgr. Tereza Hrdlička (22.09.2023)
Myth and Modernity
Excercise for Erasmus and English speaking students
Time: winter semester 2024, 1.10. 2024-10.1.2024 (12-13 courses)
Time: TUESDAY 17:30-19:05
Place: ZS C 448
Credits: 6 ECTS
Guarantors: Tereza Hrdlička, Tereza Havelková
Course description:
Romanticism opens modernity by raising themes in the field of philosophy, art and perception that shape modern culture and society. The concept of new mythology or modern myth is one of these topics. It manifests itself in literature and visual arts from romanticism and symbolism, through surrealism, to abstraction, but it is also reflected in the sphere of politics and, as so-called political religions or false myths, it becomes a tool of totalitarian ideologies. It is a philosophical concept with a history extending from the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries to at least the end of World War II, when considerations of mythmaking are in a way discredited because of their association with Nazism. We will examine the role of myth in 18th-century German romanticism, the transformations in thinking about the renewal of myth in the 19th century, and attempts of mythmaking in the Second World War period in French and American art, but also in the context of the former Czechoslovakia. In our lectures we will suggest different contexts and points of view that will enable us to reexamine the role of myth in modernity. We will research and debate this vast topic together.
The course is open for students of art history, museology, art theory, aesthetics, ethnology, anthropology, literature, philosophy, philology, archeology, film studies, social sciences and other humanities, and really to anybody who's interested. It also aims to offer a course interesting enough for Czech students, so that they can practice their English in a friendly environment and meet international students.
Evaluation:
Attendance with max. 3 absences without stating a reason.
The main form of attest will be a colloquium (possibly in 1-3 rounds, the students will be divided into smaller groups of about 10 people), where participants will be asked to present and discuss their view on a question, which they will be given beforehand. The question will be aimed to reflect on things discussed in the course, to be researched in a literature of students´ choice, or formulated concisely as a point of view or an argument. Active participants of the colloquium do not have to send in written versions of their assignment. Those unable to participate in the colloquium, will send texts in a written form around the length of 4 standard pages (One standard page is 1800 characters with spaces.).
