This course examines the impact of the middle ages on the politics, culture and society of eastern and central Europe in the 20th century through a variety of texts. The course will examine the justifications and dangers of a synthesised past.

15x1hr lectures; 5x1hr seminars over 10 weeks as scheduled on MyCampus. This is one of the Honours options in History and may not run every year. The options which are running this session are available on MyCampus.

None

None

The standard assessments for this course are:

■ Essay (2500 words) - 30%

■ Examination (90 minutes) - 50%

■ Seminar presentation (8 minutes) - 20%

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 written assessments (including exam), but flexible deadlines or extra time can be offered as reasonable adjustments (students should follow the usual process for extensions).

■ Individual presentation or submission of annotated ppt slides as an alternative to the oral presentation.

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

It is the default expectation that all courses will offer opportunities for reassessment or deferred assessment. Where it is not possible to offer this in some assessment components, the grade achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade, and any exceptions for this course are described below.

[No exceptions]

This course aims to:

■ Examine the way the past has been handled and manipulated through works of history, literature film and the performing arts, with a special emphasis on Central and eastern Europe from 19th century empires to the post 1989 states.

■ Study the use of popular history in general and the middle ages in particular to establish national identity, to uphold and resist Communism after 1945 and to reaffirm differing visions of nationhood in the 1990s.

■ Compare how national ideologies based on the past competed against other ideological narratives such as modernism and scientific progress.

■ Discuss the use and abuse of history in the era of mass media.

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

■ Produce a clear account of the relationship between perceptions of the past and present in modern Central and Eastern Europe (including, but limited to; Germany, Russia, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia and republics of former Yugoslavia).

■ Analyse texts in detail and comment on techniques used to give a particular impression of national history.

■ Be able to present on and take part in spontaneous discussion about set novels, plays, films opera and poetry relevant to the course.

■ Contribute to discussion of how contemporary cultural priorities affect the study of the past and how perceptions of history shape contemporary cultural discourse.