European culture and identity [ LEUSL2040 ]

Non.

The course will analyze a series of concepts (identity, culture, heritage, history, tradition, modernity) when applied to Europe. It will present in more detils the main heritages of the European tradition and their relevance for today's Europe. Several key moments of European history will be tackled. Eventually, the course will propose a comparison between European and Oriental cultures in order to better characterize the specifif constituents of the European tradition.

The course wil help students to master important concepts (identity, culture, heritage, history, tradition, modernity) when applied to Europe. Doing this, the aim of the course is to help students to be able to define their own identities and to express it in a well argumented manner.

The contribution of this Teaching Unit to the development and command of the skills and learning outcomes of the programme(s) can be accessed at the end of this sheet, in the section entitled “Programmes/courses offering this Teaching Unit”.

Oral presentation of a short written essay (max. 3 pages).

The course will open with a reflexion on tne concept of history and its application to Europe, and on the concept of European space and borders. It will then move to the concepts of identity and of European identity, and will question the possibility and limit of a political construction of such an identity. The concepts of culture, civilization, and cultural identity in relation to Europe will then be scrutinized. The course will remind the main foundation myths of Europe and jump to the question of the heritages. Three main heritages will be studies in more detail : the hellenic, roman, and judaeo-christian heritages. The last part of the course will be devoted to a comparion between european and oriental (eastern) cultures, in order to better characterize the specifif constituents of European culture. Through these analyzes, several key moments of European history will be tackled.

Support : available on Moodle.