An Introduction to Central and Eastern Europe

general courses

English language command at the B2 level

The purpose of the course is to provide students with a broad overview about history, political developments, identity, culture, heritage and society of the Central and Eastern Europe.

Eastern Europe has long been thought of as the “Other Europe,” a marginalized region characterized by political instability, shifting national borders, ethnic diversity, and a certain isolation from the centers of power in the West. Even after integrating with the West, ECC still maintains the aura of “otherness”.

During the course, students will get acquainted with the history of Eastern and Central Europe, its identity issues, cultural heritage and current politics. We will track the process of transition from East Europeans to Europeans, analyzing the shift of collective identities and symbolic boundaries in the CEE countries.

We will make an overview of the change in Europe since 1945 with an impact of the Old Continent and new political developments that have shaped CEE region. As well, we will discover the concept of Eastern Europe and see how it developed and changed. Who are the diverse ethnic groups that make up the region, and how have they cooperated and clashed? How and why have national borders shifted so frequently? What is the region’s relationship to Western Europe? How has the region been isolated from—and connected with—the West?

The roots and outcomes of a specific CEE identity will be debated, as well as recent developments, influenced by systemic transformation, democratization and Europeanisation. We will take a look at the history of relations between the European Union and Central and Eastern Europe, as well as outline the major social and political processes that determined social life in CEE countries under communist rule with an emphasis on explanation of the totalitarian character of the communist state and its impact on social structures and dynamics of social interactions in CEE societies.

Introducing students to poets, writers, artists, and other cultural figures who all made an impact on Eastern European history, will provide them with a whole new context for understanding authors such as Franz Kafka, Czesław Miłosz, Milan Kundera, Václav Havel and many others.

Milan Kundera „The Tragedy of Central Europe”

Czesław Miłosz “Rodzinna Europa”

Vaclav Havel “Europe as Task” and “The Power of the Powerless”

Philip Roth „The Prague Orgy”

Adam Michnik “The Two Faces of Europe”

Timothy Garton Ash, “Does Central Europe Exist?”

Stories of Europe: A return to Europe, by Timothy Garton Ash

Lucan A. Way and Steven Levitsky “Linkage, Leverage, and the Post-Communist Divide”

Grigore Pop-Eleches „Between Historical Legacies and the Promise of Western Integration: Democratic Conditionality after Communism”

Piotr Sztompka “From East Europeans to Europeans: shifting collective identities and symbolic boundaries in the New Europe”

The Other Europe. Interview with Jacques Rupnik

Jonathan Webber “Making Sense of the Holocaust in Contemporary Poland: the Real and the Imagined, the Contradictions and the Paradoxes”

Jurij Andruchowycz, Andrzej Stasiuk „Moja Europa. Dwa eseje o Europie zwanej Środkową”

- student is familiar with the history of the Eastern and Central Europe and understands the cultural, political and social processes taking place in EEA (K_W01)

- student understands the historical and cultural ties between the countries and the peoples of the EEA (K_W03)

- student understands the relationships between the various dimensions of social change that took place in the Eastern and Central Europe (K_W02)

- student knows the advanced new methods of analysis and interpretation of cultural texts (K_W07)

- student is able to interpret social processes and a social change that took place in the EEA countries in an advanced and interdisciplinary way (K_U04)

- student is ready to show respect for partners in the discussion and uses substantive arguments; understands the principles of tolerance and cultural differences (K_K05)

Final grade depends on:

- Presence on the lectures (absence from more than one third of the classes makes it impossible to pass examination)

- Activity during the lectures

- Oral examination

(2 unjustified unattendances are accepted)