THE WRITERS OF PRAGUE

After providing an overview of the history of Prague and the Czech lands from earliest times, the course will focus on works by Prague writers from the years 1895-1938, when the city was a truly multicultural urban center. Special attention will be given to each of the groups that contributed to Prague’s cultural diversity in this period: the Austro-German minority, which held disproportionate social, political and economic influence until 1918; the Czech majority, which made Prague the capital of the democratic First Czechoslovak Republic (1918-1938); the German- and Czech-speaking Jewish communities, which were almost entirely wiped out between 1938 and 1945; and the Russian and Ukrainian émigré community, which—thanks in large part to support from the Czechoslovak government—maintained a robust, independent cultural presence through the 1920s and early 1930s. Through close reading and analysis of works of poetry, drama, prose fiction, reportage, literary correspondence and essays, the course will trace common themes that preoccupied more than one Prague writer of this period. In compiling and comparing different versions of cultural myth, it will consider the applicability of various possible definitions of the literary genius loci of Prague.