Europe is home to a bewildering puzzle of many different histories, nations, cultures and languages, with more than 450 million people now living in the European Union. This course will start by introducing several earlier attempts to make a more united, and presumably more peaceful and prosperous, "Europe" out of the nation-states on the continent. Each "imagined" Europe, as we shall see, was proposed to correct problems with the nation-states - to change politics and everyday lives in particular ways. A recent history of post-World-War-II Europe by Tony Judt will anchor the class' original work on Europe and its member nations. Judt tells the continent's story from the point of view of the era's global power politics, and then situates individual European states within them. Judt's text, then, provides accounts of Europe from the top-down and points to moments when those official accounts diverge for particular states and when they place individuals and groups who do not fit the national stereotypes under pressure. The historical account of Europe as seen from the point of view of world politics is an interesting counterpoint to the evolution of European government since World War II, EUS305 Course Description, 2 as realized in the Council of Europe and the European Union. This part of the course will introduce the structure of European governance and its institutions and will outline its central features and challenges. The largest section of the course is devoted to lectures on current European political, social and cultural issues such as immigration, the COVID-19 crisis, language policies, social movements and climate change, Europe and religion, right-wing populism in Europe, politics of memory and Europe’s future. Students will get an overview on these topics from a European perspective and will carry out some small research projects on a particular country. The course will introduce students to the most important research materials for the study of Europe such as the central academic journals that focus on European issues, European survey tools, and research by European think tanks. The assignments of the course build on each other to help students acquire a body of skills and knowledge that will aid in their personal studies of Europe and in their major courses.

ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADING:

● Response paper to chapter of Postwar = 20%

● Three ninety minutes online tests @ 10% each = 30%

● Homework assignments = 10%

● Final research paper = 30%

● Reading questions (Judt chapters and questions from class part 4) = 10%

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This course will offer a survey of the Ukrainian authors from the 1920s through the present. We will examine the writings from the times of the “Executed Renaissance,” some underground/diaspora literature, and postmodernism. We will focus specifically on works that, in one way or another, challenge the set paradigm of socialist realism, either ethically or aesthetically, by discussing forbidden subjects (famine, religion, Gulag), or even simply accentuating the themes that are not considered “major” (personal life). The goals will include introducing the students to major works by Ukrainian authors, to enhance their knowledge on Eastern Europe in general, and to hone writing skills.

Grades:

Exams (2): 30% (15% each)

Reading quizzes (5): 20% (4% each; administered via Canvas) T

wo short papers (2): 30% (15 each)

Presentation: 20 %

Globalization is a historical process of worldwide integration that has both economic and cultural dimensions. As Europe's largest economy and labor market, Germany has experienced both economic and cultural globalization in ways that have transformed a society long associated with mythic ideas about German nationhood and identity. The new economic order of the European Union, characterized by multinational corporations and the free flow of capital and labor, has changed German society by internationalizing the products, services, travel opportunities, and mass media that are now available to all Germans. One aspect of this process has been the arrival of foreign workers that began during the 1950s. In recent decades the presence of 8,000,000 foreign residents, including 3,000,000 Turks, has forced the German myth of national identity to change toward a more multiethnic model. This model is now in crisis following the arrival in Germany of huge numbers of non-European refugees. The racial view of nationality based on bloodlines rather than a liberal, republican view of citizenship is, after a long postwar decline, now making a comeback on the German political right. The influence of xenophobia in Germany is currently one aspect of a “new normal.” At the same time, the postwar transformation of Germany's role in the world is evident in the fact that the prime movers of the European Union have been the politically conservative German Chancellors Helmut Kohl (1982-98) and Angela Merkel (2005-). German leadership within an unstable European Union confirms its international orientation in today’s world.

Cultural globalization during the postwar period has been driven primarily by an American "cultural imperialism" that includes the sheer power of the English language to infiltrate virtually all aspects of modern experience. Popular music, television programming, and Hollywood films exemplify the appeal of American cultural models in Germany and in other modern societies. The German language is absorbing American vocabulary ("Team," "Insider," "Know-How," "Power," etc.) at a breathtaking rate, a cultural process that has been accelerated in recent years by the ubiquity of a computer technology of American origin. All of these trends make German society an important case study in the epochal contest between cultural self-preservation and globalization that is taking place around the world.

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The principal focus of this course will be to analyze contemporary Scandinavian literature and film and examine how the arts reflect a Scandinavian reality that is under transformation. The main focus will be Scandinavian stories from the last 25 years.

Scandinavian fiction has reached international audiences lately, gaining new followers with the concept of “Nordic Noir” which expands on the previous success of Scandinavian crime fiction as a form of fiction explicitly concerned with social critique in TV-series, novels and films. Literary fiction discusses aspects of identity, personal struggle, nationality, and the Scandinavian welfare state. These themes also appear in what is a golden age for Danish cinema in the Dogma 95 movement. The past is imposing itself on the present, and the family as an institution is being questioned time and again, while the youth seem lost in a world where all values are debatable, and the Scandinavian absurd humor can be used as a reflection of the challenges to society.

Scandinavian literature and movies are full of maladapted heroes and heroines. In many cases, the main characters are trying hard to realize their dreams and fulfil their ambitions. They all have individual goals that frequently collide with society's norms, the social pressure of the outside world and stereotypical views on body and gender roles.

            In this course, we examine the protagonists in some of the most celebrated books and movies from Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. We read and analyze the texts and interpret the movies with inspiration from intellectuals and philosophers such as Søren Kierkegaard, and Friedrich Nietzsche. Thinkers who have heavily influenced Scandinavian intellectual life.

            Throughout the course we will study some of the best works of autofiction written in recent years, all of which have been very popular among readers and praised by literary critics. Autofiction challenges the traditional divide between narrator and author and more closely examines the fascinating relation between reality and fiction.

In our discussions, we will compare similarities and differences between the various materials and look at how they each tackle historical and contemporary themes including how these artistic forms negotiate Scandinavian identity and interact with an increasingly global and interconnected world. We will examine what makes Scandinavian stories Scandinavian and discuss, in what ways the individual countries in the region might differ from each other in their political discussions as well as their creative output.

Using creative output from Scandinavia, this class develops your ability to discuss, write, and read carefully and critically as well as challenge your preconceived notions and aids you in becoming better at crafting arguments and communicating your thoughts to others.

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Who were the Vikings, and why is the twenty-first century so fascinated with them? (Is “Viking” an ethnic adjective or a job description? Did they call themselves Vikings?)  Were they as fierce and bloodthirsty as the movies sometimes show? Why did they act as they did? What language did they speak? What did they wear? What did they eat? What kinds of weapons and tools did they use?What were the women among them like? What are runes? What are the Eddas? What are the Sagas? What were Viking-age politics and social constructs like? What about Viking technology, religion, and art? (What is Ásatrú? Would the Vikings have known the term?) What are the (complex!) political implications of Vikings, and Viking-age religion and culture, in today’s Europe? If you are interested in any of these questions, you have come to the right place!

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Environmental politics is one area where Europe arguably leads the world. Europe has, at both the national and European-Union level, committed itself to achieving reductions in carbon emissions far greater than anywhere else in the world. This course will examine the history of environmental politics in both the member states of the European Union and the EU itself. Beginning with a conceptual treatment of general environmental politics and policies, the course moves to a history of European environmentalism, before shifting to a discussion on the institutional responses at important ‘traditional’ Member States (Germany, France, Italy and the UK) as well as ‘new‘ Member States (Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary). The final section of the course examines EU environmental policies themselves, such as the EU Emissions Trading System and its institutional commitment to meeting Kyoto Protocol goals.

Grading

• Exams: 50%
• Group paper: 30%
• Attendance/Participation/Discussion Questions: 20%

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Sport and other forms of physical culture have played important political roles in German history over the past two centuries. The gymnastics movement of the early 19th century promoted an intense German nationalism based on racial/ethnic identity. The late-19th century gymnastics movement was both politically conservative and engaged in an unsuccessful struggle with the foreign "sport" culture that eventually conquered the world in the form of the Olympic Games and global soccer. The 1936 ("Nazi") Olympics promoted Hitler's foreign policy objectives by serving as a propaganda platform that persuaded much of the world that Nazi Germany would not go to war. an anti-Nazi boycott effort in the united States did not succeed. The next German dictatorship to adopt sport as a political strategy was Easy Germany (1949-1989), which produced huge numbers of internationally successful athletes by creating a system of early recruitment, expert coaching, and a secret doping program that fed anabolic steroids to thousands of young men and women, including children: criminal medicine in the service to sportive nationalism. In recent decades, Democratic Germany has pursued a very successful program to become a world soccer power. The 2006 wold Cup competition in Germany marked a turning point by producing and politically acceptable form of German nationalism. The German victory at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil has confirmed traditional stereotypes about German efficiency that reflect well on Germany's political system. The inclusion of players of non-German origin on the national team serves as a symbol of German multicultural policy in an era of troubled race relations across the face of Europe.

Grading:

• Exam #1: 25%
• Exam #2: 25%
• Quizzes (5 worth 5% each): 25%
• Term Paper: 25%