Context
Latvia is a country in northeastern Europe with ancient and diverse cultural heritage. Due geographical location and historical events Latvians have always lived in close connections with other nations, their language, religion, and culture and have interacted with them. Therefore, Latvians’ self-identification (individual and national) and relationships between individuals, social and ethnic groups, and nations are significant issues of Latvian culture awareness.
Did you know that Latvians
- stay up all night and jump over bonfires during the Latvian Midsummer (Jāņi or St. John’s Day), and there are more than 2,300 folk songs about this night?
- gained their independence from the Soviet Union by joining hands and singing across the entire country in 1991?
- invented blue jeans (Jacob William Davis), spy cameras (Walter Zapp), and holograms (Juris Upatnieks)?
Overview of the Course
Aim
The purpose of this course is to introduce you to Latvian culture through two parallel or contrasting conceptual pairs: person/society and syncretism/heterogeneity.
Design of the course
This course has been designed to provide you with themes related to Latvian-ness using a variety of texts (e.g., poems, short novels, postcards, advertisements, maps, paintings, films, and songs). These colorfully represent certain periods in time, show a significant change in Latvians’ worldviews, cultural and literary traditions, and daily life, as well as reflect complications of internal relations.
Methodological pathway of the course
We will practice deep learning to uncover multiple layers of the texts in terms of literary studies and social semiotics. In other words, we will meaningfully read not only linguistic texts, but also multimodal texts (created by various modes, e.g., scripts, creation materials, pictures, ornaments, colors, music) – to uncover links to Latvian community and culture.
We will focus on four periods of time:
1) Baltic tribes and transformations of paganism in the territory of nowadays Latvia,
2) intelligent self-confidence, national romanticism and the Young Latvians movement in the late 19th century,
3) individual identity crisis, propaganda and social realism in Soviet Latvia,
4) hybrid identities, globalization and post-modern literary experiments in contemporary Latvia.
Each period of time will be represented in an individual Module.
More specifically you will learn:
- how to read and analyze texts with more than one mode (languages, images, sounds, and symbols) or texts without words at all (e.g., photos, paintings, costumes, meals, city artifacts) in the specific spatiotemporal and socio-cultural context
- about development of cultural history in Latvia
- how to identify, analyze, and interpret cultural-marked characters, symbols, ideas, and scenes in Latvian texts
- how to discuss Latvian identity issues (thoughts, feelings and beliefs in relation to each other with their behavior and habits) in different time-spaces
- how to reflect about yourself as a text reader and interpreter
The Course Objectives
1. Read various folklore, literature, art, music, film, architecture and landscape texts – explore a “treasure trove” of Latvian culture.
2. Improve multimodal, socio-cultural and critical literacy – ability to read, argue, interpret, and use (e.g., transform, modify, perform) various texts considering Latvian cultural-historical context.
3. Present independent research on modern Latvian culture.
Learning materials
All learning materials (reading texts, movies, songs, videos, posters, and PP presentations) will be regularly uploaded on the course Canvas page in the sections Modules and Files in advance or given in the class. You are not asked to purchase any learning materials for the course, but it is your responsibility to have them in our classes.
The main verbal texts of the course
The shortened version of the national epics "Lāčplēsis" (Bear-slayer) - 16 pages
Rainis (1905) Fire and Night. Drama. (78 pages)
The films
"Baltic Tribes" by Abele & Abele (2018)
"My Favorite War" (2020) by Burkovska-Jacobsen and/or "Is it Easy to be Young?" (1987) by Podnieks and/or "The Chronicles of Melanie" (2016) by Kairišs
Additionally we will work on timeline with main historical facts of Latvia and maps; folksongs; poems; songs and videos; paintings and posters; short fairytales; Constitution; photos of architectural monuments; and reference materials for your individual research on modern Latvian culture and society.
The Course Evaluation
We will have 19 classes in person with an option to organize some online classes (if necessary). To pass the course, you need to do the majority of assignments. They will be graded in the percentage system. Giving the final grade, focus will be paid to the following four components:
1. At least 15 home assignments1 (e.g., readings, creative works, reflections) on the course Canvas page with the mark "completed" (out of 18 home assignments) - 25 %
2. Participation in various classroom activities (mainly in person with some online classes if necessary) in at least 15 classes2 (out of 19) - 25 %
3. Four classroom assignments (e.g., seminars, role plays, quizzes in groups, individual presentation) based on the main verbal texts and films of the course (see previous section) and individual research with the grade (each will give max 10%) - 40 %
4. Final paper - 10 %
1 and 2 at least 15 home assignments / participations = 25% or 100 p; 13-14 = 80 p; 10-12 = 60 p; 6-9 = 40 p; 3-5 = 20 p; 1-2 = 10 p; 0 = 0
Participation, or an active learning work, means that you are constantly engaged in learning, follow the lecturer’s instructions, ask questions (if they are such), collaborate with other course members, complete various tasks, offer ideas for learning activities (if necessary), reflect on learning process (including sharing with successful learning strategies, doubts, challenges, etc.).
Grading scale for the final grade
97-100%=4.0; 93-96%=3.9; 91-93%=3.8; 90%=3.7; 89%=3.6; 88%=3.5; 87%=3.4; 86%=3.3; 85%=3.2; 84%=3.1; 83%=3.0; 82%=2.9; 81%=2.9; 81%=2.8; 80%=2.7; 79%=2.6; 78%=2.5; 77%=2.4; 76%=2.3; 75%=2.2; 74%=2.1; 73%=2.0; 72%=1.9; 71%=1.8; 70%=1.7; 0-60%=0.0
N.B. (!) See more detailed syllabus before the first class. But if you have any questions right now, feel free to contact me - solvitap@uw.edu