Objectives and competences

This course focuses on processes of collective memory formation from antiquity to the present. The students learn about important authors and texts as well as crucial historical processes that significantly influenced the protocols of collective remembering. The course deals with the processes that marked the beginning of modern remembering of nations and national communities. It answers when, why, and under which circumstances the memories of peoples are transformed into the memories of nations.

Prerequisites

None required.

Content (Syllabus outline)

• From people’s memory to nation’s memory:

• Formation of national communities
• Formation of national memory

• From the polis to the modern nation-state:

• Formation of the idea of consent of the governed
• Division into secular and church government
• Differences between republican and monarchist principles of governance
• Formation of the idea of the modern state

• Nineteenth-century modernization and formation of the nation:

• Applicability of political concepts in everyday life
• The role of the individual in political decision making
• From an anonymous actor to citizen
• Principles of political decision making

Readings

• Beck, Paul, Mast, Edward, Tapper, Perry. 1997. The History of eastern Europe for Beginners, New York: Writers and readers Publishing: 1-12, 29-53, 61 – 76.
• Brubaker, Rogers. 1996. Nationalism Reframed. Nationhood and the national question in the New Europe, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 1-10, 13-22.
• Gellner, Ernest. 1983. Nations and Nationalism, Ithaca – New York: Cornell University Press:1-7, 53-62, 88-109.
• Johnson, R., Lonie. 1996. Central Europe. Enemies, Neighbours, Friends, Oxford – New York: Oxford University Press: 27-148.
• Fenske, Hans, Martens, Dieter, Reinhrad, Wolfgang, Rosen, Klaus. 1987. Geschichte der politischen Ideen, Frankfurt/M: Fischer.
• Anderson, Perry. 1992. Rodovnik absolutistične države, Ljubljana: Studia humanitatis.
• Mc Clelland, J.S. 1996. History of Western Political Though, London: Rotledge.

Assessment

• Active participation in discussion classes and an essay (5–8 pages) in which students analyse an issue and support their arguments with excerpts from relevant reading.
• An oral exam in which the student must demonstrate a sufficient understanding of the overall course content.
• Assessment:
  • The written essay demonstrates students’ ability to concentrate on a particular issue, to choose relevant reading, and to engage in analytical reasoning, argumentation, and expression in writing. 
  • The oral exam assesses what students learned during lectures and their ability to understand, articulate, and present relevant issues.