070469 KU Text and Discourse Analysis (2011W)

This course will apprehend the history of communist Central and Eastern Europe from 1945 to 1989 as described in the jokes told by the people and which journalist Ben Lewis carefully retraced to particular countries and particular times (stalinism, post-stalinism, etc.) On the basis of this source material, we will try to restitute key aspects of everyday life under communism, such as economic shortages, delicate power relationships between individuals and authorities at all levels, relationship to Moscow and cultural stereotypes between countries of the bloc, the denunciation atmosphere between small citizens, but also positive aspects such as the luxury of time and the assistance of the state in various social matters.
First, we will set the general historical context. Then, famous (and less famous) jokes will be contextualized and analyzed so as to restitute their implicit meaning. Lastly, we will reflect on the current «ostalgia» (Ostalgie) for the communist period. Communist jokes will be understood as a key cultural legacy of the communist times, and complemented by audio-video material so as to recreate a lively impression of the main issues at stake under a dictatorship of the communist kind. Small amounts of reading or watching video material will be demanded from session to session. This seminar will thus combine training in the key topic of East European history with the study of a specific type of sources.