Module Information
Course Delivery
Delivery Type | Delivery length / details |
---|---|
Lecture | 20 x 1 Hour Lectures |
Seminar | 6 x 1 Hour Seminars |
Assessment
Assessment Type | Assessment length / details | Proportion |
---|---|---|
Semester Assessment | 1 x 2,500 word essay | 30% |
Semester Exam | 2 Hours (1 x 2 hour exam) | 70% |
Supplementary Assessment | 1 x 2,500 word supplementary (resit) essay | 30% |
Supplementary Exam | 2 Hours 1 x 2 hour supplementary (resit) examination | 70% |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this module, students should be able to:
a) Identify and explain the key historiographical debates concerning the place of Czechoslovakia in European history
b) Demonstrate their knowledge of national identity, Stalinism, Communist reformism, post-Stalinism and dissent in Czechoslovakia.
c) Reflect critically on the nature of `totalitarianism' and of `civil society'.
d) Analyse and evaluate a range of primary sources related to the ideas and activities of `Reform Communists' and dissidents in Caechoslovakia.
e) Gather and sift appropriate items of historical evidence
f) Develop and sustain historical arguments - in both oral (not assessed) and written work
g) Work both independently and collaboratively whilst being able to participate in group discussions (not assessed).
Brief description
The module is designed to alert students to the variety of sources available to contemporary historians, and in particular to the problems historians encounter in seeking to understand closed societies in which there is no freedom of expression, and thus no such thing as public opinion. It draws on samizdat documents and literature, memoirs, and the writings of Czechoslovaks who emigrated in the aftermath of the Soviet invasion of their country in 1968.
Content
1. Introduction
2. The Making of Czechoslovakia
3. The First Czechoslovak Republic and its Destruction: 1918-1944
4. The Origins and Development of the Czechoslovak Communist Party
5. From Democracy to Communist Dictatorship, 1945-1948
6. The Stalinist Regime, 1948-1962
7. Origins of the Prague Spring
8. 'Socialism with a Human Face'? 1968
9. The Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia
10. 'Normalization'
11. 'Actually Existing Socialism': Communism without Ideology, 1969-1989
12. Dissent and Charter '77 i): organisation and impact
13. Dissent and Charter '77 ii): 'The Power of the Powerless' – the dissidents’ ideas
14. The Causes of the Velvet Revolution
15. The Course of the Velvet Revolution, 1989
16. The Break-up of Czechoslovakia, 1990-1993
17. 'The Deserts and Coasts of Bohemia': When, Where and What was Czechoslovakia?
18. Conclusions: Constructs of Identity, Myths of Martyrdom and Strategies of Survival
Seminars:
1. Czechoslovakia, the Second World War and its Aftermath
2. The Stalinization of Czechoslovakia, 1945-1962
3. The 'Prague Spring', 1968: Reform Rule in a Communist State
4. 'Post-totalitarianism': The Normalised Regime and Dissent, 1969-1988
5. From Velvet Revolution to the Fragmentation of Czechoslovakia, 1989-1993
Notes
This module is at CQFW Level 4