Week 4: First Week of Classes
This was the first week of the semester. I had four classes: Interpretation of European Fairytales, Sociology of Food, Czech and Central European History, and Czech and Central European Art and Architecture. The first half of the week was relatively unexciting, mostly prepping for classes and getting accustomed to a new schedule, but the weekend made up for this!
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| My original schedule |
On Monday, I had Interpretation of European Fairytales and Sociology of Food. Both were really interesting and I'm excited to take them.
The course description of European Fairytales is:
"Fairytales are a significant part of culture which has been attracting attention of various fields of knowledge. Through their variety, diversity and colourfulness you can observe diversity and colourfulness of the world whereas their specifities and pecularities show distinction and specific nature of particular countries, peoples and cultures.
This course first seeks to introduce the area of European fairytales as a genre within its broader historical, geographical, and cultural context, in relation to other European folk genres as myth or legends, with a closer focus on Czech fairytales and their specifics.
The main goal of the course is to show fairytales as symbolic narratives bringing a lot of information about the world around us as well as about ourselves. There are various theories searching for the disguised symbolical meanings of European fairytales and the significance which they contain and refer to. While folklorists have been trying to organize and classify fairytales, psychologists, literary critics and other scholars have been trying to interpret them: to find out which messages, recomendations or other information they bring – about society, its rules, customs or beliefs but also about human wishes, desires or visions.
The course will describe and survey the changes in the approach to European fairytales within the development of scholarship about them. It presents sociohistorical, psychological or anthropological interpretations, as well as biologically based and gender or feminist methods of their interpretation. It touches upon the topics like ethical or moral principles in fairytales, gender and social roles, or historical and political influences to fairytale adaptation."
The course description of Sociology of Food is:
"Eating is a natural necessity for almost all human beings. Food, however, does more than just help humans survive and grow. It can become a political tool, a marker of social class and gender, a mirror of significant cultural differences. On a more individual scale, it can be related to personal identity, habits and health. As our perspective in this course is sociological and semiotical, we shall look at food both as a source of embodied experience, and as a language that can be decoded. It is a symbolic system that reflects the everyday habits of humans, norms of societies, as well as deeper, internalized meanings. Food will thus become a lens through which we will see and analyze our different cultures in a new light. We will ask questions such as: What is the place of origin of our food? How did our food get to us? How does food configure and change relations among people?
During our comparisons and practical workshops, we shall trace the histories of some of the most significant meals of the Czech Republic (and former Austro-Hungarian empire). Their transformations will help us understand the social changes that took place in Central Europe from a different perspective. Questions such as gender relations, families, political economy, health (obesity, anorexia, bio food), ecology and the nation-state will be discussed. We will read academic articles that react on these questions in various national and ethnic contexts.
There will be a trip to the National Museum of Agriculture, National Museum, local brewery, the Prague Market, as well as cooking workshops where students will learn how to make some local dishes."
A group of us got dinner at the Czech version of a traditional American restaurant and I got an amazing Beyond Burger.
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| Yummy |
I had already been considering dropping Czech and Central European History because I didn't need it to fulfill any requirements and it was my only class on Tuesdays. I love history and think the class would've been interesting so I decided to attend the first class and see if it would convince me to take it. About 15 minutes in, I'd already decided to drop. I was looking forward to my other courses and I wasn't looking forward to the future history classes, so I thought it wouldn't be worth having the extra work and class on Tuesdays.
I went for a walk after class and then we had our API Prague Hideaways Tour where Jana and another guide showed us some unknown spots and passages around Old Town and Wenceslas Square.
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| View on my walk |
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| Secret gardens close to Wenceslas Square |
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| Statue by David Cerny (the artist who created Franz Kafka's head and the interesting statue we had to contemplate a few posts ago) |
I had class, figured out how to print readings for my classes on a Czech computer, did some wandering, and played piano in the music room.
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| Music room |
It was the first day of my art history course; I didn't realize the class focused on modern art, but I'm excited because I love it and there's a lot of great modern art in Prague. The first half of each class is a lecture and the second half is a field trip, which is really cool.
The course description is:
"This combined seminar and lecture course aims to acquaint students with aspects of Central European visual culture from the modern era onwards. It will introduce major art styles and personalities in Czech modern art (from Art Nouveau's Alphonse Mucha and the pioneer of abstraction František Kupka, to the unique phenomena of Czech Cubism and Surrealism all the way to the contemporary provocations of David Černý). Deep changes that occurred in architecture (from Art Nouveau decoration through Functionalist utopia to deconstruction of Postmodernism) will be introduced and discussed. All artworks will be examined within their broader cultural and historical context. Students will be given the opportunity to visit many Prague galleries and museums to encounter and study the originals in detail."
During the second half of class, we went to the Convent of St. Agnes. It was founded in 1231 and houses a collection of medieval Bohemian and Central European art.
After class I headed off as quick as I could to buy a stapler and pack for the weekend!