CZECH & SLOVAK

 

 

 

 

 

Czech and Slovak are the major official languages of the Czech and Slovak Republics.  They are located on the crossroads between North and South, as well as East and West.  Their cultures have been shaped by the diverse influences absorbed for over a thousand years.  Hence the knowledge of their social, historical and cultural development offers an excellent insight into this part of Central Europe.

The University of Toronto in the only university in Canada where you can study Czech language (a course in Slovak in planned for the near future), Czech and Slovak literatures, and cultures, from the elementary to the Ph.D. level.  We offer Major and Minor Programmes in Czech and Slovak Studies, but you may also select individual courses.  The core  of our department's offerings is a two-year language sequence, one literature course, and one culture course.  If you have no knowledge of the languages, you can start from the beginning in SLA 205Y.  If you have some knowledge of the languages, you can enter directly into SLA 305Y.  No knowledge of the languages is needed to enroll in the culture course, SLA 215Y, but for the literature courses, SLA 405Y, where literary texts are studied in the original, students must have a good reading knowledge of the languages.

Although the Czech and Slovak programme might be especially attractive to students who would like to learn more about the lands of their ancestors, it should also attract the attention of those, irrespective of the ethnic background, who are interested in Western Slavic languages in general.  One can get acquainted with the wealth of cultures by learning the language and reading authors such as: Nemcova, Neruda, Seifert, Timrava, Tatarka, Hrabal, Hasek, and Kundera; watching the masterworks of Czech and Slovak cinema; being introduced to major linguistic and literary theorists such as Mukarovsky, Jakobson, Vodicka, Veltrusky.

Czech and Slovak Courses

SLA 205Y - Elementary Czech, MTWR11  
Hours: 4 Hours per week
Prerequisite: Open to students with no previous knowledge of Czech.
The goal of this course is to acquire the basics of the language: active vocabulary, grammar and listening/reading comprehension.  A variety of texts, exercises, games and audio-visual materials help the students to speed up their progress.

SLA 305Y - Advanced Czech, MTWR1 
Hours: 4 Hours per week
Prerequisite: SLA 205Y
Course Description:  Morphology, syntax, composition and translation, oral practice.  Study of contemporary Czech texts representing diverse styles.

SLA 455Y – Aspects of Czech Syntax and Style, M10-12
Analysis of sentence structures with regard to semantics. Introduction to Stylistics. Translations, composition, oral practice.

SLA 465S/1606S – Czech Short Story, T2-4 (Graduate and Undergraduate)
Hours: 2 Hours per week
Introduces the problematics of public places and private spaces through various works of Czech writers from the 19th and 20th centuries.  

SLA 475F/1605Y – Modern Czech Drama, T2-4 (Graduate and Undergraduate)
Hours: 2 Hours per week
Introduces students to the most important plays of contemporary Czech authors.

SLA 1603Y – Readings in Czech and Russian Literary Theory, W2-4

(Graduate only)

The Prague Linguistic Circle which continued and developed some of the fundamental writings of the Russian Formalists presented new approaches to literature and language.  Both schools will be examined with respect to their position within their historical context and their contribution to theory of literature.  Knowledge of Czech, Russian and German is desirable, but not mandatory, since most of the texts are available in English translation.  (Offered every three years)