CZECH (With Slovak)

UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD FACULTY OF MEDIEVAL AND MODERN LANGUAGES

Information for the Preliminary Course in

CZECH (with Slovak)

2010/2011 THE PRELIMINARY COURSE

The Prelims course in “Czech (with Slovak)” is normally devoted entirely to the study of Czech – although a student competent in Slovak may translate from English into Slovak instead of Czech in the examination.

(An introduction to reading Slovak is provided during the second year.)

First-year teaching in Czech language and literature – in the form of university lectures, college classes/seminars and tutorials – is coordinated by:

Dr James D. Naughton (St Edmund Hall) University Lecturer in Czech and Slovak email: [email protected]

The timetable of classes in Michaelmas Term will be arranged at a meeting held towards the end of Freshers Week (= Noughth Week).

Beginners will receive around three hours of intensive Czech language classes per week, and more advanced students will be catered for as appropriate. Students also attend a weekly lecture on Czech literature and a weekly seminar on Czech literary texts. These continue throughout the year. There will also be tutorials for essay work on Czech literature; these tutorials are usually held in Hilary and Trinity Terms.

A number of links to local and outside web resources for students of Czech and Slovak language and literature are provided on the following web pages: http://users.ox.ac.uk/~tayl0010/links.html http://users.ox.ac.uk/~tayl0010/czech.html

Further details about the papers to be sat in the Preliminary Examination and set texts for literature are given below, followed by an introductory reading list, with recommended dictionaries, textbooks and some background reading.

Four Czech examination papers are taken by all at the end of the first year (whether beginners or not) as follows:

Czech Prelims information for students 2010/11 PAPERS I AND II: LANGUAGE

Two language papers are taken in the Preliminary Examination, which is held at the end of the third term. These aim to test the ability to understand and translate straightforward modern Czech prose, active knowledge of elementary grammar, vocabulary and idiom, and basic writing skills. (Oral work is not tested by formal examination at this stage.)

The level of language work set in the examination primarily aims to cater for ab initio candidates.

(Any native speaker or relatively advanced student of the language will be set more demanding language work during the year.)

PAPERS III AND IV: LITERATURE

Two literature papers are also sat at the end of the year, one devoted to the Czech short story, the other to Czech drama and poetry.

(The Czech-language texts may be hard to purchase outside the Czech Republic, but sufficient copies of the plays will be available for borrowing from the Taylor Slavonic Library and copies of the short stories and the poem will be supplied in class during the year.)

In Paper III the focus is on close study of several Czech short stories, using the following set texts:

Milan Kundera, ‘Falešný autostop’ (from Směšné lásky, 1963-1968)

Bohumil Hrabal, ‘Pábitelé’ (from the collection Pábitelé, 1964)

Jan Neruda, ‘Doktor Kazisvět’ (from Povídky malostranské, 1877)

Ota Pavel, ‘Zlatí úhoři’ (from Jak jsem potkal ryby, 1974)

(They may also be discussed within the context of the collections to which they belong, as well as within the author’s work as a whole.)

For Paper IV we study two twentieth-century plays:

Karel Čapek, R.U.R. (1920, prem. 1921)

Václav Havel, Vyrozumění (1966, prem. 1965)

and the most famous nineteenth-century longer Romantic poem:

Karel Hynek Mácha, Máj (1836)

Czech Prelims information for students 2010/11 READING LISTS

The beginners’ language textbook which we are using is:

James Naughton, Colloquial Czech (Routledge, 2011) – obtain the NEW third edition.

You are also advised to acquire this basic grammar for reference purposes: James Naughton, Czech: an Essential Grammar (Routledge, 2005)

Some online vocabulary testing material is currently available here: http://weblearn.ox.ac.uk/site/human/modlang/czech/czechlang/colloq/

Other useful links are available here: http://users.ox.ac.uk/~tayl0010/links.html http://users.ox.ac.uk/~tayl0010/czech.html

Recommended Dictionaries

You will eventually need to acquire and use more than one dictionary, as none covers every requirement for reading and translation. Recommended dictionaries include:

Josef Fronek, English-Czech Czech-English Dictionary (Anglicko-český a česko-anglický slovník), Prague: Leda, 1998 etc.; handy noun tables, less good for verb aspectual pairs.

Ivan Poldauf et al., Anglicko-český česko-anglický slovník, various editions, 1073 pp.; older but useful two-way dictionary with good information on aspectual pairs.

Ivan Poldauf, Velký česko-anglický slovník, WD Publications, Čelákovice / Hippocrene Books, New York, 1188 pp.; various printings, very useful larger Czech-English volume, very good for identifying aspectual pairs.

Josef Fronek, Velký česko-anglický slovník, Prague: Leda, 2000, 1597 pp.; another newer large Czech-English dictionary.

Josef Fronek, Velký anglicko-český slovník, Praha: Leda, 2006; similar in size to the preceding.

This single-volume monolingual dictionary is also very useful for examples of usage:

Josef Filipec et al., Slovník spisovné češtiny pro školu a veřejnost, Prague: Academia, 1994 etc. (2nd ed.)

+ phrase-books etc. e.g. Berlitz, Collins, BBC, Rough Guide, Oxford Photo Dictionary.

Selected reading matter in English, including translations: 4

Czech Prelims information for students 2010/11 Václav Havel, The Memorandum, Selected Plays; Milan Kundera, Laughable Loves, The Joke; Karel Čapek, R.U.R., War with the Newts; Bohumil Hrabal, The Death of Mr Baltisberger, Closely Observed Trains; Jan Neruda, Prague Tales; Ota Pavel, How I Came To Know Fish; Josef Škvorecký, The Cowards; Jaroslav Hašek, The Good Soldier Švejk – and anything else you can find...

More at: http://users.ox.ac.uk/~tayl0010/transl.html

J. Naughton, ed, Traveller's Literary Companion to Eastern and Central Europe (Brighton: In Print Publishing, 1995); Jiří Holý, Writers under siege : Czech literature since 1945, Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2008

Brief surveys of Czech literature since the late eighteenth century: http://users.ox.ac.uk/~tayl0010/lit_to_1918.htm http://users.ox.ac.uk/~tayl0010/lit_from_1918.htm

Maria Dowling, Czechoslovakia; R. W. Seton-Watson, A History of the Czechs and Slovaks; Piotr Wandycz, The Price of Freedom: A History of East Central Europe; Lonnie R. Johnson, Central Europe: Enemies, Neighbors, Friends; Peter Demetz, Prague in Black and Gold; Derek Sayer, The Coasts of Bohemia.

A brief potted survey of Czech history: http://users.ox.ac.uk/~tayl0010/history.htm

Czech Prelims information for students 2010/11