Polish

Provide the student with vocabulary, grammar and cultural insight via an introduction Polish language and associated culture.

Provide the student with vocabulary, grammar and cultural insight via an introduction Polish language and associated culture.

Major characteristics and historical stages of the development of Polish Culture with a special emphasis on Literature, as well as European contexts and question of Polish distinctiveness, both religious and secular.

Continuation of Elementary Polish. The course offers further development of grammatical and communicative skills, as well as standard idiom, in the broader context of Polish culture and everyday life. Development of skills in reading Polish texts.

Continuation of Elementary Polish. The course offers further development of grammatical and communicative skills, as well as standard idiom, in the broader context of Polish culture and everyday life. Development of skills in reading Polish texts.

The History of 20thCentury Poland, including such topics as nationalism, reestablishment of independence, Poland under totalitarian systems, and the Solidarity Era and return to freer politics and society. Politics will receive considerable attention, as well as cultural, economic and religious history, with some attention to the place of Poland in the wider world.

The course is designed to present students the key aspects of over 300 years of Polish history from the so-called “Golden Age” of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in late XVIc to the partitions of Poland in the XIXc and national uprisings. This fascinating and turbulent period will be described from the political, cultural and social view. The class is a combination of series of lectures and in-class discussions. Students will write two brief essays about two chosen topics from the list.

Selected topics to study the past 200 years of history concerning the Polish immigration to Texas, reasons for their departure and their contributions to Texas/US as it relates to economics, religion, politics, and culture.

The course is designed to present students the most important facts, events about modern Poland XX/XXI century, including the political situation, Polish business, daily life, tourism, Polish customs and traditions. The class is a combination of series of lectures and in-class discussion. A separate bibliography will be provided for each module. Material will be also provided by instructor. Students will write two presentations about two chosen topics from the list. The participants' knowledge will be checked during the midterm exam (test) in Module 7 and the final exam in module 15 (test).

The course is intended as a review of Polish cinema from 1945 to the present day, as an example of national and European cinema. We will look at the films from both historical and aesthetic perspectives to show the main trends of Polish cinema, such as Socialist realism, Polish film school, cinema of moral concern etc. In this way, we will discuss the work of some of the most important Polish filmmakers (Andrzej Wajda, Andrzej Munk, Roman Polanski, Agnieszka Holland, Krzysztof Kieslowski and others). The classes were conceived as a series of lectures combined with a discussion on selected Polish films. Students will prepare presentations on film directors for each class. The participants' knowledge will be checked during the midterm amd final exam.

Using contemporary Polish literature, the course is designed to introduce topics of Polish culture, history, and society for English language readers. Works by Polish writers not only possess high aesthetic values, but also serve as artistic records revealing the major upheavals of Polish history: partitions, lack of independence, communism, the democratic movement. Applying interdisciplinary tools, students will decipher a manifold depiction of Polish culture and society.

Student research on a selected problem in the field pursued under the guidance of an assigned member of the faculty.