FPF:UHVDN017 Totalitarian Ideologies of the - Course Information

UHVDN017 Totalitarian Ideologies of the 20th Century as Political Religion

Extent and Intensity

0/2/0. 2 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).

Teacher(s)

Mgr. Jiří Němec, Ph.D. (seminar tutor)

Guaranteed by

Mgr. Jiří Němec, Ph.D.
Institute of Historical Sciences – Faculty of Philosophy and Science in Opava

Course Enrolment Limitations

The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.

fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with

• Cultural History (programme FPF, N7105 HiVe)

Course objectives

Political historiography found a new concept of totalitarianism in second half of the 20th Century to describe European authoritarian political regimes of national socialism and communism. In the beginning was the concept not elaborated by historians, but political thinkers and philosophers like Franz Borkenau, Carl J. Friedrich und Hannah Arendt. In addition to their interpretations developed Raymond Aron and Eric Voegelin their own concepts of political religion. Although all of these interpretations were during the time criticised, a rethinking of them can bring some new ideas to study the 20th Century. A good example is study of relationship between ideology, propaganda and ethics of the New man. The aim of the course is to familiarise with these classical interpretations of totalitarianism and an attempt to apply their results in study of contemporary publications.

Syllabus

• 1. Introduction
  2. Brief history of totalitarian system of national socialism
  3. Brief history of totalitarian system of communism
  4. Georg Orwell and literary fiction of totalitarism
  5. Concept of totalitarianism according to Franz Borkenau
  6. Concept of totalitarianism according to Carl J. Friedrich
  7. Concept of totalitarianism according to Hannah Arendt
  8. Concept of totalitarianism and political religion according to Raymond Aron
  9. Concept of political religion according to Eric Voegelin
  10. The idea of New man
  11. Ethics, moral and rituals of national socialist man
  12. Ethics, moral and rituals of socialist man.

Literature

recommended literature
• Aron, R. Historie XX. století. Praha 1996. info
• Maier, H. Politická náboženství. Totalitní režimy a křesťanství, Brno 1999. info
• Burgleich, M. The Third Reich. A New History, New York 2000. info
• Voegelin, E. Vzpomínky na života filozofii. Brno 1998. info
• Iggers, G. Dějepisectví ve 20. století. Od vědecké objektivity k postmoderní výzvě. Praha, 2002. info

Language of instruction

Czech

Further comments (probably available only in Czech)

The course can also be completed outside the examination period.

Teacher's information

* Reading and interpretation of texts
* active participation on discussion
* Final colloquium
* seminar paper in form of an essay on given topic

• Enrolment Statistics (Summer 2015, recent)
  
• Permalink: https://is.slu.cz/course/fpf/summer2015/UHVDN017