Webinars
Department of Czech Literature and Department of Czech Language of Masaryk University
cordially invite you to lectures by
Dr. Oren Cohen Roman, University of Haifa
- Introduction to Jewish Manuscripts and Prints in the Bohemian Lands, 25 April 2023, 2 pm, Faculty of Arts, Arne Nováka 1, Brno, room D 31
This presentation will introduce the written culture of the Jews living in the Bohemian lands in the Early Modern Era. It will review the extant repertory and how the advent of print affected it, highlighting elements such as language, script, and format. It will also touch upon the cultural and linguistic ties that the Jews in the Bohemian lands maintained with their co-territorial neighbors and with Jews in other countries, as reflected in the books that they produced.
2. Yiddish Booklets and Broadsheets Printed in Prague, 26 April, 2 pm, Faculty of Arts, Arne Nováka 1, Brno, room D 31
Yiddish, a Germanic language written in Hebrew characters, was the vernacular of most Jews living in the Bohemian lands in the Early Modern Era. The advent of print brought about significant book production in this language, with Prague rising to prominence as one of the most important Yiddish printing centers. The presentation will focus on Yiddish prints of a smaller format, presenting the extant corpus, and attempting to compare it with the Czech kramářské písně.
Both lectures can be watched online at the following link:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://cesnet.zoom.us/j/94471514112?pwd=SUlJUlRtVnE0QXMzVzFURmNtbWswQT09
Meeting ID: 944 7151 4112
Passcode: 859953
Wednesday 14 October, 6 - 7.30 p.m. "Collectors, Consumers, and the Making of Seventeenth-Century English Ballad Publics: From Networks to Spheres" (this talk would cover how broadside ballads were collected, from the 16th through to the 19th century. It would then focus on the network of collectors of what I call the "heyday" of the broadside ballad of the 17th century, when the ballad was printed in swirling black-letter typeface, with many woodcut illustrations, and also a tune title. The center of this collecting network was Pepys, who had some connection, one way or another, with the other collectors of his time. I would also look at the ways broadside ballads were inserted into album books or pasted on sheets of cardboard, which often involved cutting them apart and rearranging the pieces. Finally, I would show how Pepys personally formed groups of people around ballads he would bring to parties, read, or sing.).
Presentations: [pdf], [ppt]
Video: https://youtu.be/ZlyoKEmHyKc
Tuesday 27 October, 6 - 7.30 p.m. "Resigning History: 'Greensleeves' Broadside Ballads from Late-Elizabethan to Restoration England" (this topic would focus on one of the most popular tunes of all times, still known today in English speaking countries, and it would track its morphing from a religious to a political tune during the turbulent times of the Restoration in the seventeenth century, the 1660s).
Video: https://youtu.be/6RwySC7nLDM
Wednesday 11 November, 6 - 7.30 p.m. "Tracking The Lady and the Blackamoor: Ballad Song, Image, and Publics, 1570-1789" (since Black Lives Matters is so prominent a movement even beyond the US, I thought this might be a very relevant paper; however, contrary, to expectations, and though I begin with a news article in an 18th century Gazette that tells the story of the ballad I discuss as if it just happened for real, I argue that the black servant in the ballad is fictional but speaks to many sorts of the populace that are not black but occupy similar positions, or positions that align with his in some ways).
Flyer: [pdf]
Webinars are held in English on Zoom. You have to download Zoom ahead of time (https://zoom.us/download).
LINK TO VIDEOCONFERENCE:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://cesnet.zoom.us/j/91507022389?pwd=Q3NiNzNzNThjMXpOaUdhOVBRY0Q4dz09
Meeting ID: 915 0702 2389