Slavic 245

Autumn 2003

Prof. Charles Gribble

Tuesday and Thursday, 9:30-11:18, Lazenby 001

My office: 339 Cunz Hall.

Office hours: TR 11:45-2:00

Telephone: 292-6733 (Dept.); 766-9412 (home: all 7 days, but not after 9:00 p.m., please).

Course call # 17604-7, 5 credits

This course will introduce you to the Slavic peoples of Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hercegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia, various aspects of their cultures, and their relations with each other and their neighbors. The course meets for two hours twice a week, with a short break in the middle of the two hours. There is no prerequisite.

We will start with a survey of the lands, peoples, and languages of the South Slavs ( Bulgaria and the successor states of the former Yugoslavia) and a brief look at their neighbors. We will read a variety of works of differing length and genre: a novel, some short stories, a number of essays and commentaries, a short history of the area, and small amounts of poetry and folk literature. The reading assignments will be longer at the beginning of the course, when you are less busy in general, and will become lighter toward the end of the course when you have papers and final exams to worry about. We will spend a fair amount of time on the history and present situation of our area. Some time will be spent on folklore and oral literature, art, folk music, church music, religious differences, the question of nationalities and nationalism. I plan to show two whole films and some excerpts from others. Along the way we will consider a variety of questions, such as: why does it mean to modern Serbs when they commemorate the day of the losing battle that brought them under five centuries of Turkish domination? Why did Pope John Paul II's beatification of a Croatian cardinal evoke such strong expressions of approval and condemnation by different groups? During World War II Bulgaria was the only country other than Denmark which did not surrender any of its own Jews to the Nazis, even though it was officially aligned with Germany. How did it manage this? Why did the Bosnian/Serbian writer Ivo Andrić write his Nobel-prize-winning novel, The Bridge on the Drina, about a bridge built by the Turks? Was Yugoslavia, a country sometimes characterized as having "seven nationalities, six republics, five official languages, three religions, and two alphabets," doomed to failure from the start?

This general syllabus is intended to orient you to the class; a more detailed day-by-day schedule of topics and assignments is provided separately. That schedule is subject to change after I have had a chance to find out more about you and what you want from the course (partly from the questionnaire given out in class the first day), and after I have firm dates for some of the events.

There are four major items of reading materials for the course:

1. Ivo Andrić: The Bridge on the Drina.

2. Slavenka Drakulić: Café Europa.

3. Mark Mazower. The Balkans A Short History.

4. A course packet.

Items 1, 2, and 3 are available at SBX or Borders for about $37.00 total; item 4 is available in the Dept. of Slavic Languages, Cunz 232, for about $8.00. More pages will be made available later to add to those initially in the course packet.

Grading

There will be an in-class midterm, an in-class discussion project, and a final. Grading is not on a curve, so there is no quota of A's or E's: you will get what you earn by your work. You are expected to attend every class unless you have an adequate excuse; excess absences (more than 10% of the 20 classes [i.e. 2] without a written excuse) may affect your grade.

1. Midterm: 25%. Both the Midterm and the Final will have a variety of questions, with some requiring short answers (one sentence to one paragraph), some requiring a short essay, one or two requiring an essay of medium length, and some identifications. Copies of previous exams and sample questions will be handed out for both the Midterm and the Final.

2. Final: 35%. The Final will cover the entire course, with emphasis on the part after the midterm.

3. Class preparation, participation, and attendance: 20%. You are expected to have the readings done by the date assigned. There may be occasional unannounced brief written checkups on the progress of the assigned readings. The book(s) with the readings should be brought to class on the day(s) that discussions of those readings are scheduled. You are expected to participate at least occasionally in class discussions. A sheet will be circulated each day to be signed, in order to provide an attendance record. It is your responsibility to make sure you sign the sheet.

4. Class discussion project: 20%.

Class discussion project:

First, you find a topic that interests you. This may be something touched upon in the lectures or readings, or it may just be something that you want to find out about. Obviously it has to have relevance for this course. You will then submit that topic to me on a piece of paper for approval. When your topic is approved, you will prepare a presentation about six to ten minutes (maximum 15) for the class, discussing your ideas. There will be a short time for questions after you finish. You will select your topic no later than Oct. 28. Each person must have a separate topic, but two or even three persons may take different aspects of a topic.

If you don't do a presentation, you get a failing grade for 20% of the course. If you don't do it on time, you lose credit for part of the 20%. If you just can't speak in front of a class, you may present the talk to me alone, but this is only as last resort. If you do your presentation acceptably well, you pass. I will keep notes on the presentations: if you do very well, you get a high grade ; if you do a weak presentation and what you say is not particularly well thought out, you get a lower grade. If you try to get by on hot air or don't prepare adequately, your grade on it will be correspondingly low. After the presentation you will write up your talk, including a list of references and sources, and hand it in. It will probably be four to ten pages long. The main purpose of the presentation is to give you practice in oral presentation, which is necessary in many different jobs and activities these days, and to achieve greater student participation in the course (instead of just hearing me lecture). In some cases you won't need to do any library work for this presentation, but for most you may need a little work in the Library or on the Internet. The success of your presentation will depend above all upon the care and thought that you put into it.

Some sample topics:

1. Compare and contrast the European Community of 2003 to the Turkish Empire in the 16 th and 17 th centuries.

2. Compare and contrast the European Community of 2003 to the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the 19 th century.

3. Compare and contrast the Turkish Empire in the 16 th and 17 th centuries to the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the 19 th century.

4. To what extent did geography influence the course of politics and history in the Balkans or in some specific time or part of the Balkans?

5. The role and situation of women / national minorities / religious minorities / refugees in the Balkans.

6. Folk costumes in the Balkans - form and function.

7. A South Slavic writer or artist whose work you enjoy.

8. Armed conflict in Balkans during the past fifteen years.

9. Slobodan Milosević

10. Franjo Tuđman

11. Cardinal Stjepanac

12. Todor Živkov

13. Milovan Đilas

14. Edvard Kardelj

15. King Boris of Bulgaria

16. Georgi Dimitrov.

15. Serbo-Croato-Bosno-Montenegrin - one, two, three, or four languages?

16. Bulgarian and Macedonian - one language or two?

19. Compare & contrast two East/Central European Countries during a recent time period, e.g. Poland & Bulgaria WWII to present

20. Relations between Bulgaria and the Byzantine empire

21. What the Bridge represents in the novel.

22. Reasons for military success and later failure of Turks

23. History of music in Bulgaria or Yugoslavia

24. Romantic nationalism in Balkans and its effects

25. Impact of Italy along Dalmatian coast

26. The Kosovo problem - why is US involved?

27. Folk costumes - form and function

28. The conflict between Macedonia and Greece, especially during last twelve years

29. Yugoslav naive art

30. Orthodox Christianity

31. Tourism industry in Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and successor states

32. Orthodox Christianity compared to Roman Catholicism

33. Music of the Orthodox Liturgy

34. Your Yugoslav or Bulgarian or other Balkan or East European roots - who came to North America, when, from where, why, how, with or without family, did they keep in touch with those who stayed in the old country, did they ever go back to visit, where did they settle in North America, did they bring over other relatives later, what language did they speak at home, did the children and grandchildren speak the language, what church did they go to, did they join any ethnic clubs or insurance companies

35. Slovenes/Croats/Serbs/Bosnians/Bulgarians/Macedonians/Dalmatians during WWII.

36. Find out more about one of the folklore items in the book: e.g., the immurred maiden or the hero who is not dead, but only sleeping, and will arise to help his people in their time of need.

The above are only samples: use your imagination!

Questionnaire for Slavic 245, Autumn 2003

The following questions are to help me in planning the course and to give me a better idea of who you are. The phone question is to be able to reach you in case I'm sick or there is some emergency. Please feel free to give me additional information at any time, such as what you would like out of the course, things you would like more information on, etc.

Name:

Local phone:

Year (freshman, senior, etc.):

What city and state are you from?

What is your major field?

What, if any, is your minor field?

Is this course fulfilling a BER/GEC/LAR requirement for you?

Is any of your family Slavic or other East European?

If so, of what nationality, and where did your parents or grandparents come from? (If you don't know, ask the next time you are with them).

What is the main reason you taking this course? ("It's at a convenient time" or "it fulfills a requirement" are fine answers -- I'm just curious)

Do you know any Slavic or other East European language? ( not needed for course -- again, just my curiosity)

If so, which one(s) and how well?

Please use the other side to mention anything that you would especially like to see in the course or that you would like to get out of the course; do not hesitate to make your wishes known at any time during the quarter. Thank you. Please turn in at the end of class.

To do: Hilandar Room; folk music 2 hrs, liturgical music; naive art; folk epics; geography; languages; nationality vs. state (League of Nations: Portuguese delegate wanted "League of States"; Magdalena Simic

discussion topics: language vs. dialect; what is a nationality?

The clerk /klark/ put the spanner under the bonnet of the lorry and took the lift to his flat.