This course will offer the unique opportunity to study the history of Czechoslovakia, a democratic country in Europe that has been dragged through Nazism and communism to emerge again as a democratic country by analysing a series of period feature films which bear testimony of the value system of each historical era. The analysis of the period film works will be framed within lectures and seminars explaining, with the help of relevant literature, the cultural and historical context.

10x2hr lectures; 10x1hr seminars over ten weeks as scheduled in MyCampus. This is one of the Honours options in History and may not run every year. The options that are running this session are available on MyCampus.

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The standard assessments for this course are:

■ Essay x 2 (2,000 words) each - 45% and 45%

■ Presentation (8 minutes) - 10%

If required, for instance where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, the following alternatives are available:

■ There is no alternative to the essays, but flexible deadlines can be offered as reasonable adjustments (students should follow the usual process for extensions)

■ 1:1 presentation / Q&A with course convenor or recorded presentation as alternative to seminar presentation.

Further reasonable adjustments may be provided where necessary. Students are encouraged to consult with the course convenor.

This course aims to:

■ Review a case study of the twentieth century history of a medium-sized European nation to give an understanding of developments in recent European history;

■ Improve critical and evaluative skills in the handling of a variety of primary and secondary sources, including period cultural material from the realm of cinema within the context of a relevant historical framework;

■ Broaden awareness of a range of historical methods, historiography, interdisciplinarity and theory;

■ Enhance confidence and independence of judgement in dealing with conflicting interpretations of major issues;

■ Improve presentational and analytical skills through assessed essays, seminar papers, discussion, and group work.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ Identify the key characteristics of twentieth century historical development within a typical Central European nation and interpret cinematic cultural artefacts within the appropriate historical context

■ Understand thoroughly the major political and social issues which have affected the lives of Europeans over the past hundred years

■ Employ the appropriate historical methodologies involved in studying cultural artefacts;

■ Explain the role that theory may play in historical explanation and interpretation;

■ Interrogate a variety of cinematic source materials and describe their role in the process of historical explanation;

■ Apply critical and analytical skills in the analysis of cinematic cultural artefacts.