340124 VO Text and culture 2 Romanian (2022W)

The lecture offers an overview of key subjects related to Romanian culture, including ethnogenetic and identitary disputes on 'latinism' and 'dacism', the (de-)mythologisation of such historical figures as Vlad Tapes and Dracula as his fictional Doppelgänger, the crucial cultural influence of the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires, the 1848 Revolution, the territorial and political unions and the formation of the Romanian state in 1918, the religious make-up of the country, Romanian antisemitism and the Romanian Holocaust, the communist era and the 1989 Revolution as well as the coagulation of contemporary Romanian society and politics. The purpose of the lecture is to encourage a complex examination of past and present focal points in Romanian culture and accordingly facilitate a more accurate analytical stance and heightened intercultural awareness.
On the basis of selected fictional and non-fictional texts, films, documentaries, interviews, works of art, etc., the lecture features a series of presentations on (inter)cultural issues. The set reading and preparation of various primary and secondary texts as well as their discussion during the lectures are a requirement.