| MO3333 | Language and Nationalism in Central Europe |
| Lecturer | Dr Tomasz Kamusella |
| Credits | 30 |
| Availability | 2012-2013 - semester 2 |
| Class Hour | view timetable |
| Description | Language was the ideological and practical basis for the emergence of national movements in Central Europe in the 19th century, and for the subsequent creation of nation-states in the region during the following century. This is often acknowledged but rarely explored. This module will investigate the process of making ethnolinguistic nations and their polities, the ideological and political underpinnings of this process, and their social ramifications in a comparative and interdisciplinary framework, over the time-span running from the Napoleonic Wars to the breakup of Yugoslavia. The significance of ethnolinguistic nationalism for the current situation in the region and for the situation in present-day Belgium, Northern Ireland and Spain will also be discussed. |
| Basic Reading | B Anderson Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (1991) L Bauer and P Trudgill (eds) Language Myths (1998) R D Greenberg Language and Identity in the Balkans: Serbo-Croatian and Its Disintegration (2004) T Kamusella The Politics of Language and Nationalism in Modern Central Europe (2009) NB: esp pp 1-149 |
Course Structure |
1. Introduction: Language as an Instrument of Nationalism 2. The Napoleonic Wars and the Rise of German Ethnolinguistic Nationalism 3. 1848: Language and National Movements 4. Austria-Hungary: Language and Autonomy in a Non-National Polity 5. 1918: From Empires to Ethnolinguistic Nation-States 6. The Soviet Union: Communist in Content, Ethnolinguistic in Form? 7. World War II and the Aftermath: States and Languages Rearranged 8. Czechoslovakia: From Czechoslovak to Czech, Slovak (and Rusyn) 9. From the Soviet Union to Ethnolinguistic Nation-States 10. Yugoslavia: From Serbocroatoslovenian to Serbo-Croatian (and Macedonian and Slovenian) to Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian and Montenegrin and ... 11. Overview and Comparison with Ethnolinguistic Policies in Belgium, Northern Ireland and Spain |
| Assessment | 60% examination: 3-hour paper |
Learning Outcomes |
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| Restrictions | None |