General information

Course type AMUPIE
Module title Popular Culture of the Central Europe and the Balkans
Language English
Module lecturer dr Urszula Kowalska-Nadolna
Lecturer's email ukow@amu.edu.pl
Lecturer position adiunkt
Faculty Faculty of Polish and Classical Philology
Semester 2024/2025 (summer)
Duration 30
ECTS 5
USOS code 03-AP-PCCE

Timetable

Module aim (aims)

The students gain both the general knowledge about the main components of the Central European and Balkan pop culture(s) and the ability to synthesize and analyse them in the comparative perspective.

Pre-requisites in terms of knowledge, skills and social competences (where relevant)

Syllabus






Course learning content:
Popular culture as a conceptual category; popular culture as a folk culture; popular culture as the culture of the people, popular culture as a mass culture, popular culture as a culture produced by the people; popular culture as our culture.
Central European and Balkan popular culture: between facts and superstitions; general determinants of popular culture’s development; stages of the Central European and the Balkan popular culture’s development.
What the people want to listen to? – (popular) music as one of the main components of popular culture (turbo-folk, czauga, disco polo, folková hudba, "national" varieties of hip hop).
What the people want to watch? Film narratives of the Central European and the Balkan popular culture (i.e. tv series, Turkish series, reality shows, Talk shows).
What the people want to have? – commercials creating the need.
What the people want to read? Popular literature of the Central European and Balkan nations as an antidote to the hypocritical reality.
How the people want to be informed? The overnational phenomenon of tabloids.
How the people want to rest and enjoy? The culture of discoes, allotment gardens, dachas etc.

Reading list