Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures

SLA200H1. Spring 2018

Culture and Politics in Europe

Class meets on Thursdays from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM in CR403.

Assignment 1 is due at the beginning of class in week 5, Feb 1, 2018. You must submit a paper copy in class.

You must write a brief essay of 2 pages, no less than 600 words. Essays should be formatted with 1 inch margins, double spacing, and 12 point type. Put your name on top of page 1. Please do not use a separate sheet for a title page.

Write clearly. Choose the right words, shape your ideas into meaningful sentences, and structure your argument into cohesive paragraphs. Make sure you say EXACTLY what you mean, not something almost similar to what you thought you might want to say. Be brief and get to your point directly, without lengthy introductions or digressions. Express your insights. Demonstrate that you have given some consideration to the ideas you are expressing and that you understand how these ideas relate to other ways of looking at the topic.

You must choose ONE of these four topics, based on the first four classes. Remember that you must cite any ideas you use that are not your own, which also includes the lectures in class. You cite a lecture by the name of the lecturer, the class and date of the lecture.

1. In Oleksander Dovzhenko's 1927 film, Arsenal, which you viewed in the first class on Jan 9, there is a great deal of cheering for "our side" (the Communists) but very little political description of what "our side" actually represents and what "their side" (the Nationalists) actually represents. Using three specific examples, describe how Dovzhenko presents the virtues and faults of the two politically antagonistic sides in the film. (You need not know anything about the actual history and actual politics. The question asks you to examine what is in the film, not what actually happened.)

2. Using the analytical tools Prof. Kramer demonstrated in class and those in the Jaworski reading you were assigned, analyse the postcard you were given. What can you learn through the study of this artefact? How does it reflect a linguistic, cultural landscape?

3. In Danilo Kiš's story, "The Mechanical Lions," there is a lengthy description of the St. Sophia cathedral in Kyiv (Kiev). What role does this description play in the story?

4. In the fairy-tale “Stribor's Forest” by Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić, mythical, mythological and political aspects are intertwined. Describe and explain how mythical can be understood as political in this story? You can access “Stribor's Forest” from Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić's Croatian Tales of Long Ago, pp. 163–84, online or in pdf version.