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WRITERS AND FILMS OF EAST
CENTRAL EUROPE
Spring 2000
Monday,
4:30-7:10pm
Prof. Lawrence Orton
E-mail: HNRS230_5@hotmail.com
Office Hours: After class and by
appointment
[printable
version]
Scope
and Aims
This
section of HNRS 230 introduces students to the East Central European
experience of the
second half of the twentieth century through cinema and through the
fiction and essays of
writers of the region. The
course is organized around several broad, chronological themes: (1) the
Second World War and the Holocaust;
(2) the
consolidation of Communist rule and Stalinism; (3) and opportunism
and accommodation in
everyday life in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s (and political, national and
religious dissent and
opposition in the same period).
Works by Polish, Czech, Slovak, and Hungarian film makers will be
examined.
The
aim of the course is straightforward--for students to read and view
first-rate creative
works that provide a sense of the Central and East European
experience with fascism and
communism, and to share their understanding and insights in class
discussion and written
exercises. Attention
will be paid to both the explicit and the veiled social and
political
"content" of these works and to their artistic merit. Consequently, we need to be
sensitive to the
methodological issues posed in using film, fiction and critical essays as
historical documents.
Through their reading and viewing students will gain insight into
the attitudes, values
and self-images of Poles, Czechs and other peoples of East
Central Europe.
Writers
and film makers were frequently under pressure in the communist period
to produce "correct"
visions of their societies--past, present and future--but they were
often able to work
around the system to produce a vision that was at variance with
official orthodoxy.
Creative intellectuals who labored on the edge of the permissible
often enjoyed
considerable popular prestige.
But in some nations, and during times of intense repression, the creative intelligentsia
suffered severely.
Course
Requirements (Exams &
Papers)
There
will be a "take-home" Midterm (distributed on March 6 and due back on
March 20) and an
"in-class" Final Examination (May 8).
Each
student will be responsible, in consultation with the instructor, for (1)
leading the discussion
on an assigned reading or film and (2) preparing a paper critically
assessing aspects of the
work of an East Central European writer or film director. A list of suggested term paper topics is appended,
as is a bibliography of "Selected Readings on Film in East Central Europe." A paper of eight to twelve pages
should be submitted by
May 1 in both hard copy and electronic (floppy or e-mail
attachment) versions. Term
papers and "take-home" exams should be composed using a recent
version of either MS
Word or WordPerfect.
In addition, each student is expected to become familiar with
the pertinent sources on
the Internet for the study of Central and East European cinema.
For
guidance in matters of English usage and appropriate forms of citation,
students are asked to
consult Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers,
Theses, and Dissertations,
the 6th (pbk) edition of which the University of Chicago
Press published in 1996.
"Turabian" is an abbreviated version of the Chicago Manual of
Style.
Both
MS Word and WordPerfect have templates to assist students in
preparing documentation
(endnotes and bibliography) that conforms to Turabian/Chicago Manual
of Style.
Weighting
of Graded Work
Each Exam 25
%
Paper
25 %
Class discussion & participation 25
%
Books
The
following paperback books have been ordered for this course and may be
purchased at the GMU Bookstore:
- BOROWSKI,
Tadeusz. This Way for
the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.
Penguin.
- HAVEL,
Vaclav. Open Letters:
Selected Writings, 1965-1990.
Random House/Vintage.
- HLASKO,
Marek. The Eighth Day of
the Week. Northwestern
University Press.
- KONWICKI,
Tadeusz. The Polish
Complex. Dalkey Archive
Reprints.
- KUNDERA,
Milan. The Joke.
(Definitive Version) HarperPerennial.
- MICHNIK,
Adam. Letters from
Prison and Other Essays.
Univ. of California Press.
- MILOSZ,
Czeslaw. The Captive
Mind. Random
House/Vintage.
- ROTHSCHILD,
Joseph. Return to
Diversity: A Political History of East Central Europe
since
World War II,
3d ed. Oxford University
Press.
Assigned
Reading
Reading
assignments are drawn from these books, and additional materials (articles
and book chapters and
excerpts) that are available on library reserve or in a course binder
in the Honors Program
lounge. It is expected that
students will have read the assignments prior to the class session at which they
will be the basis for discussion. Attendance may be considered in determining a final
grade.
Policy
on make-up exams, extensions, and
incompletes
Once
in a while there are genuine emergencies which prevent a student from
taking an exam or
submitting work when due. In
such cases it is appropriate that special arrangements be made. If you believe that you are facing
a legitimate emergency and
want to have special arrangements made, inform the instructor of
the problem as far in
advance of the deadline for the work as possible. If you cannot
reach the instructor
directly, contact him through e-mail or leave a message with the
Honors College support
staff.
Contacting
the Instructor
The
best way to reach Prof. Orton is via e-mail at an account established
specifically for
this course:
HNRS230_5@hotmail.com
Assignments
& Reading
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