The "Great exhibitions" and their impact on European Cultural History (1851 - present)

Timetable

Module aim (aims)

The aim of the course is to familiarize students with the history of world’s fairs, the circumstances surrounding their organization, their course, and their impact. During the course, students will work on an essay that examines the influence of a selected world’s fair on European culture.

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

Before the course begins, students should have a basic understanding of the major events in European history. They should also be able to speak and write in English or French.

Syllabus

• History of Great Exhibitions
• Architecture and Urban Planning in Exhibitions
• Exhibitions in Culture
• Memory of Exhibitions
• Impact on Smaller Exhibitions
• Differences Between American and European Exhibitions

Reading list

• Auerbach J.A., The Great Exhibition of 1851. A Nation on Display, Yale University 1999.
• Cultures of International Exhibitions 1840–1940. Great Exhibitions in the Margins, ed. M. Filipová, Routledge 2020.
• Greenhalgh P., Ephemeral vistas. The Exposition Universelles, Great Exhibitions and World Fairs, 1851–1939, Manchester University Press, Manchester 1988.
• Historical Dictionary of World’s Fairs and Expositions, 1851–1988, ed. J. E. Findling, K. D. Pelle, Greenwood Press, New York – London, 1990.
• Roche M., Mega-Events & Modernity. Olympics and Expos in the Growth of Global Culture, 2002 Routledge, London
• Rydell R.W., World of Fairs: The Century-of-Progress Expositions, University of Chicago Press, 1993.