Moodle.UP

Feiertage und Festbräuche sind obligatorische Themen im Landeskundeunterricht, der jedoch suggeriert, dass alles schon immer so gewesen sei. Selten wird thematisiert, dass sich Traditionen über die Jahrhunderte hinweg verändert haben, oder gefragt, woher Rituale und Symbole stammen. Der heute omnipräsente Tannenbaum ist etwa aus dem deutschen Raum in die Slavia eingewandert. In Beschreibungen bäuerlicher Festtraditionen des 19. Jahrhunderts sucht man ihn vergeblich, ebenso wie Väterchen Frost und sein Schneemädchen, die ihren Auftritt in der Neujahrsnacht haben.
Der komparatistische Blick lässt Spezifika besonders klar hervortreten. Im katholischen Polen steht bis heute das biblische Geschehen im Zentrum; eine mit heidnischen Elementen angereicherte Weihnachtsmann-Tradition fehlt. Im ostslavischen Brauchtum stechen die nicht-christlichen Elemente hervor – Gogolʹs Erzählung Die Nacht vor Weihnachten bevölkern keine frommen Kirchgänger, sondern Hexen, Teufel und liebestolle Kosaken. In der Sowjetunion wurden das religiöse Fest und die ‚kapitalistische‘ Festkultur in den 1920–1930er Jahren liquidiert. Die nach dem orthodoxen Kirchenkalender im Januar gefeierte Geburt Christi wurde durch ein säkulares Familienfest an Neujahr ersetzt, das seine Mythologie aus im 19. Jahrhundert verschriftlichten Volksmärchen bezog. Wie entwickeln sich die kulturellen Praktiken in der unmittelbaren Gegenwart – nach dem Schulterschluss zwischen orthodoxer Kirche und russischem Staat, in konfessionell gemischten Ländern wie der Ukraine und Belarus, in multikulturellen Familien und in medialer Konkurrenz zu Santa Claus, Weihnachtselfen und Rentieren?

 In May 1986, Peter Burgasov, then chief medical officer and Deputy Minister of Health of the USSR, said at a round-table organized by very popular newspaper Literaturnaya Gazeta: ‘There are no conditions for a massive spread of the disease: homosexuality as a serious sexual perversion is punishable by law’ (Article 121 of the RSFSR Criminal Code). We are constantly working on drug awareness (Literaturnaya Gazeta 1986). Burgasov said that there were no homosexuals or drug users in USSR, he also said nothing about the transmission of virus through sexual contact. Above all, he and three other high-ranking officials and scientists – who participated in this roundtable – did not mention a single one of the HIV/AIDS cases registered in USSR. This must have been a conscious silence, because, as health officials they most likely knew about the HIV/AIDS cases in the country. However, as members of the Soviet political elite, they could not compromise the state health governance, and in particularly the idea of the ‘family,’ one of the most important symbolic elements of the Soviet constricted gender system.  

However, it is safe to say that Burgasov was the man who legitimised the stigmatisation not only of homosexuals (the so-called Anti-Sodomy Law was passed in 1936) but especially of HIV+ people. Neither Russian journalism nor public or official discourse have overcome this stigmatisation, on the contrary, since the 2011 the state-sponsored media have started to use stigmatising rhetoric against the political opposition, LGBTQ+, NGOs and independent civic initiatives that have criticised Putin’s policies. 

In the hands of Russian spin doctors, stigmatisation has become - as sociologist Irwin Hoffmann rightly pointed out - a "spoiled identity" and a method of marginalising undesirables. Moreover, right after the first anti-LGBTQ+ law was passed, the Russian authorities adopted the strategy of "political signification" (S. Hall), claiming the right to define the idea of the "norm" and to represent the ‘real’ state of affairs on this basis. In this way, stigma has become one of the pivotal elements of existing family politics, patriotic ideology and politics of history.  The stigmatising and violent rhetoric used by the current Russian authorities is not a new invention. In this course we will analyse how the discourse of stigmatisation and the political strategies associated with it have developed since the end of XIX century. We will also analyse how the language of stigma has been disseminated through official documents, medical practise, media and even literature.

This seminar is aimed at undergraduate and postgraduate students and has 4 objectives: 

1. To increase knowledge in the genealogy of contemporary Russian politics and history and its connection to conspiracy theories
2. To develop skills in analysing different types of sources from Soviet newspapers, archival documents and documentaries to ego-documents.
3. To develop skills in medical anthropology, cultural studies and different approaches to analysing Russian cultural and political history.
4. To develop methods of post-structural textual analysis and decoding, which will be practised throughout the course and applied in class presentations.

 Course reading will include a critical overview of key methodological texts and historical cases. We will focus on different types of stigmatisation and analyse different stigmatisation strategies, especially how they are disseminated through different texts and documents. In this way, the course will focus on the complexity of the phenomenon of stigma, which has cultural, social, medical, psychological, and political dimensions.

 As a final assignment, students will be asked to get together in small groups and analyse one of the existing cases of stigmatisation using different methodological tools. A case study should contain the following parts:

 The origins of the case (official or ideological, quasi-scientific) 

• Storytelling features (what kind of language was used to represent the need of stigma)
• The primary idea (biopolitical or gender inequality, national disparities)?

 The course will be delivered entirely in Russian; Russian-language primary and secondary sources will be used as readings. In addition to developing perspectives and expertise in critical analysis, students will practise and improve their conversational skills in Russian. To be admitted to this course, students will need to demonstrate language proficiency at C1 level or higher.

The mentality of any ethnic group is a complex phenomenon that can be described through the connection of many of its components. This is an integral ethno-psychological phenomenon, a superstructure that combines: language, culture, folklore, traditions, values of a given ethnic group, features of the historical, cultural past and present in specific historical and geographical conditions.

To get the most complete picture describing the mentality of the Ukrainian ethnos, one must first of all get acquainted with the historical events that took place on this territory, study the historical, cultural and other contexts as deeply as modern science can allow.

The question of the mentality of the language also lies at the intersection of different sciences - philosophy, social linguistics, linguoculturology, history, psychology, and others. But the key point in the study of the linguistic mentality of the nation is the language. As the Ukrainian philosopher, linguist and teacher Ivan Ohiyenko said, language is the cipher of the people, it implicitly contains culture and traditions. Language is not only a simple symbol of understanding, but also the first guardian of our mental self. And the language in this case acts as a kind of "mirror", looking into which you can understand the main features of the ethnos.

The purpose of this workshop is to show the peculiarities of the Ukrainian linguistic mentality through the study of the main linguistic, geographical, historical and cultural characteristics of the Ukrainians and their distinctive features. Particular attention will be paid to the 21st century, namely the metamorphoses that occur in the Ukrainian language after 2014 and after February 24th 2022 in real time.

The methodological ground of the workshop is based on the principle of a “flipped class”. This means that in order to master the material students will be offered video and audio to deal with. Having done this on their own, they will be able to form their own opinion on the problem being studied before the start of classes, which will free up time in the classroom for higher-order thinking activities and reasoned debate.

We are planning interactive international work of two universities: the State University of Trade and Economics (Kyiv, Ukraine) and the University of Potsdam (Potsdam, Germany).

In the theoretical part, students will have to get acquainted with the sources that the teacher will offer, accept one of the sides of the problem under discussion and reason their point of view.

During the workshop, German students of the University of Potsdam and Ukrainian students of the State University of Trade and Economics will participate in discussions, prove their opinions formed in the course of studying the problem.

The practical result of the work will be a written presentation on one of the most relevant topics for students covered during the workshop. One of the desired results will be the emergence of their own reasoned point of view on the problem of the language mentality as an important reference point for the study of any language. Since the emphasis of the workshop will be shifted towards the Ukrainian language, Ukrainian students will also serve as experts and co-moderators of the discussions.

The target idea of the project is the evolvement and strengthening of international relations that will contribute to the formation of a new positive image of Ukraine in the world community.

Zeitgenössische Lyrik stellt den Übersetzer vor besondere Herausforderungen. Schon in der Muttersprache ist es nicht einfach, überhaupt festzulegen was ein Gedicht ist und was es zu einem Gedicht macht. Bei der Lektüre eines fremdsprachigen Gedichtes bemerkt man schnell Unterschiede im Verhältnis zu Reim, Versform, Rhythmus und Metaphorik. Gerade in den slawischen Sprachen haben sich spezielle Formen aufgrund der Silben- und Betonungsunterschiede zu anderen europäischen Sprachen herausgebildet und finden bis in die heutige Zeit Anwendung. Was ist der polnische „Dreizehnsilbler" oder der belarussische „Dolnik" und was charakterisiert Prosalyrik im Polnischen, Belarussischen und Ukrainischen? Was zeichnet die Metaphorik der ukrainischen Kriegslyrik aus und macht sie trotz der Thematik ästhetisch?

In diesem Seminar sollen Studierende einer oder mehrerer der Ausgangssprachen lernen, diese Kategorien zu erkennen und anhand von Praxisübersetzung ins Deutsche übertragen lernen. Dabei wird es um Fragen der Rhythmisierung und der notwendigen „Umrhythmisierung" ins Deutsche gehen, und um die Schulung von poetischem Sehen und der Anwendung von Vergleichen bzw. Metaphern. Inwieweit ist die deutsche Wortbildungstechnik der Komposita hilfreich oder nicht? Inwieweit müssen vielleicht klassische Wortstellungsfolgen, insbesondere im deutschen Nebensatz, übergangen werden. Beispiele zeitgenössischer Dichter:innen aus allen drei Sprachen werden herangezogen. Die Veranstaltung richtet sich an Studierende einer oder mehrerer der genannten Ausgangssprachen.

In dieser Vorlesung über queere Literatur aus Osteuropa untersuchen wir anhand von exemplarischen Texten die öffentlichen Konstruktionen abweichender Identitäten. Es geht darum, wie über Sexualität und Gender in den post-sozialistischen Kulturen geschrieben wird. Osteuropa ist immer noch von gewaltbereiter staatlicher Homophobie geprägt. Seit dem 19. Jahrhundert haben literarische Werke jedoch dazu beigetragen, LGBTQ+-Themen zu legitimieren und sie in allen europäischen Ländern und Sprachen immer mehr in den Mittelpunkt zu stellen. Wir wollen uns mit Texten aus der Ukraine, aus Belarus, aus Russland, aus der Slowakei, aus der Tschechischen Republik, aus Polen sowie aus Kroatien und Serbien befassen. Ziel der Vorlesung ist es, die komplexen Entwicklungen aus einer transnationalen Perspektive zu erfassen: Unter Berücksichtigung der Vielfalt und des spezifischen Kontexts jedes Landes und/oder Sprachraums wird untersucht, wie LGBTQ+-Identitäten mit der Literatur auf drei Ebenen interagieren: (1) welche Rolle haben die Autor*innen bei der Entstehung des Feldes gespielt, (2) wie haben sich Rezeption und Interpretation dieser literarischen Werke entwickelt und (3) können wir hier von einem Kulturtransfers im globalen Maßstab sprechen? Methodisch sollen Gender- und Sexualitätsstudien, Osteuropastudien, Medien- und Filmstudien, Soziologie und Kulturanthropologie einbezogen werden.

Literatur

Channell-Justice, Emily (Hg.): Decolonizing Queer Experience. LGBT+ Narratives from Eastern Europe and Eurasia. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2020.

Chernetsky, Vitaly. “Ukrainian Queer Culture: The Difficult Birth.” Queer Stories of Europe, edited by Kārlis Vērdiņš and Jānis Ozoliņš, Newcastle-upon-Thyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016, 206-225.

Nárcisz Fejes and Andrea P. Balogh (Hg.): Queer Visibility in Post-Socialist Cultures. Bristol: Intellect, 2013.