Slavic in Translation

This course takes students through more than 1000 years of Poland's history and culture. Explorations of literature, art, film, and music, as well as key historic events and biographies, will provide students with unique insight in the main sources of Polish identity, its central values, challenges, myths, symbols, and preoccupations in a larger European context. All materials in English.

The 20th century will most likely remain one of the most puzzling periods in human history, in which amazing progress was coupled with unprecedented barbarity of modern totalitarian regimes. The course helps students untangle this paradox by exploring a series of memoirs by survivors and perpetrators, as well as scholarly essays, films, and other cultural statements.

Could Include Polish, Czech, or Slovak fiction, poetry, drama, or culture. May be repeated for credit when topics vary.

An investigation of classics of modern Czech fiction and film. Some of the great works include Hasek (The Good Soldier Svejk), Nemcova (The Grandmother), Capek (the inventor of the word "robot"), Seifert's Nobel-winning poetry, Lustig (Children of the Holocaust), Kundera (The Unbearable Lightness of Being), Havel (The Power of the Powerless; The Garden Party), as well as great films like "Closely Watched Trains" and "Firemen's Ball."

An investigation of classics of modern Czech fiction and film. Some of the great works include Hasek (The Good Soldier Svejk), Nemcova (The Grandmother), Capek (the inventor of the word "robot"), Seifert's Nobel-winning poetry, Lustig (Children of the Holocaust), Kundera (The Unbearable Lightness of Being), Havel (The Power of the Powerless; The Garden Party), as well as great films like "Closely Watched Trains" and "Firemen's Ball."

Generic course to be used when students are taking non-lecture based independent study with a faculty member. May be repeated for credit