Light in Shadows - Czechoslovakia
1968
October 2-4, 2008
Vivian and David Conference Facility, Munk Centre for International
Studies, University of Toronto.
Under the distinguished Patronage of His Excellency KAREL SCHWARZENBERG
the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic and with
the support of the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in
Toronto.
Programme:
Thursday, October 2
15:00 Introductory Remarks: Richard Krpac, Consul General
of the Czech Republic, Toronto.
Film: Oratorio for Prague (30 minutes)
15:30 17:00 The Global 1968: Paris, Warsaw
and Moscow.
Piotr Wrobel, University of Toronto. (Chair)
Bradley Abrams, Columbia University.
"1968's Long Shadow over Central European Marxism?"
Andrea Genest, University of Potsdam.
"Other 1968s Then and Now: The March Events in Poland and
Western Student Protests."
Pedraic Kenney, Indiana University.
"1968 as a transnational moment: origins, mechanisms, legacies."
Robert Johnson, University of Toronto.
"Viewing Prague >From Moscow: Before and After 1968."
17:00: Roundtable: Reflections on 1968 and Beyond.
Canadians in Prague, Czechs and Slovaks in Toronto:
Moderator: Veronika Ambros, Slavic Languages and Literatures,
University of Toronto.
Participants: Josef Cermak, Helen Notzl, Ivan Kalmar, Paul Robert
Magocsi, Don Sparling and Paul Wilson.
19:00 Introduction to Photo Exhibition: "Light
and Shadows of the Prague Spring."
Heidrun Hamersky, University of Bremen and Olga Zaslavaskaya,
Samizdat Archive, Open Society Institute, Budapest.
Reception to Follow, Munk Centre.
Friday, October 3
9:00: Opening Remarks, Robert Johnson, CERES, University of
Toronto and Professor Franz Szabo, Director, Wirth Institute for
Austrian and Central European Studies, University of Alberta.
Opening Address: Jacques Rupnik, 1968 in Czechoslovakia.
10:30 to 12:00: Panel 2: The Fateful Flirtation with the
Figure Eight: 1918, 1938, and 1948.
Michal Kopecek, Institute for Contemporary History, Prague.
"Radical Socialism or Socialism with a Human Face? Variety
of Socialist Traditions and Reform Communism in Czechoslovakia,
1948-1968."
Nadya Nedelsky, Macalester College.
"The Prague Spring's Incredible Crop of Perennials."
Peter Bjel, University of Toronto.
"Between Hitler and Tiso: The 'Ludak' Factor in Wartime Slovakia."
12:00 to 13:00: Lunch Break
13:00 to 14:45: Panel Three: 1968: Socialism with a Human
Face?
Alena Heitlinger, Trent University. (Chair)
Kieran Williams, Drake University. "Legal Science and Civic
Socialism."
Oldrich Tuma, Institute of Contemporary History. Carol Skalnik
Leff, University of Illinois. "Bratislava Spring? Slovakia's
Role in Reform and Normalization."
Michal Vasecka, Masaryk University.
15:00 to 17:00: Panel Four From 1968 to 1989
Legacies of the Prague Spring
Barbara Falk, Canadian Forces College. (Chair)
Aviezer Tucker, University of Belfast.
"Charter 77: The Communist "Losers" of 1968?"
Libora Oates-Indruchova, Masaryk University.
James Krapfl, McGill University.
"Czechs, Lies, and Audiotape: The Contested Legacy of 1968
in 1989."
Jiri Priban, Cardiff University.
Victor Gomez, University of Toronto.
17:30 20:00 Reception Bata Shoe Museum
Introductory Remarks: Josef Cermak
Eda Otta Reflections on Lost Years
Masaryk Award Presentation
Laudation: Josef Skvorecky, Zdena Salivarova, Josef Cermak,
Lubomir Dolezel, Luba Frastacky.
Antonin Dvorak, Humoresque, Karolina Kubalek, violin
Reception to Follow
Saturday, October 4, 2008
9:00 10:30 Cinema: The Czech New Wave
Herbert Eagle, University of Michigan.
"The Czech New Wave: What was new? What lasted?"
Petra Hanakova, Charles University.
"The Gendered Undercurrents of the Czechoslovak New Wave."
Veronika Ambros, University of Toronto.
"Revisions of History/Reforming the Past-Present" -
Closely Watched Trains [Ostre sledovane vlaky, 1966] and
The Shop on the Main Streeet [Obchod na korze, 1965].
10:30 11:00 Coffee Break
11:00 12:30 Prague: Theater Capital of Europe
Lubomir Dolezel, University of Toronto. (Chair)
Herta Schmid, University of Potsdam.
"Havel's Latest Dramas - A Political Outlook."
Pavel Drabek, Masaryk University, Brno.
"The Politics of Translating (and Staging)
Shakespeare into Czech in the 1960s".
Eva Slaisova, University of Toronto.
"A Big History on the Dump: Ubu the King."
12:30 14:00 Lunch Break
14:00 16:00 Fiction: Shadows of the Past
Sam Solecki, University of Toronto. (Chair)
Wolfgang Schlott, University of Bremen.
"Between disappointment and expectance: The suppression of
the Czechoslovakian reform-socialism and its reaction in the fictional
literatures in the GDR, Poland, CSSR, Soviet Union and Hungary"'
Tomas Kubicek, Masaryk University.
"Return of Ulysses. "Imagery of the exiles in the novels
of Milan Kundera."
Pavlina Radia, University of Toronto.
"Prague's Purloined Spring and the Kundera-Roth
(Dis)Junction."
Michal Schonberg, University of Toronto.
"Lux in Tenebris: Notes on the Importance of Sixty-Eight
Publishers of Toronto."
Film Presentation:
End of Stalinism in Bohemia
Jan Svankmajer 12 min.
***
Conference Patron: Cvachovec Foundation
Lead Sponsors: Sonja and Thomas Bata, Rudolf and Rosalie
Cermak Fund, Children of Georgina Steinsky-Sehnoutka; SVU Edmonton;
Estate of Emilie Perina; Czech Tourism, Toronto; Prague Fine Food
Emporium; Centre for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies,
Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto;
Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of
Toronto; Forschungsstelle Osteuropa, University of Bremen; Wirth
Institute, University of Alberta.
Supporting Institutions: Institute for Contemporary History,
Prague; Masaryk University, Brno; Open Society Archive, Budapest;
International Samizdat Research Association.
Honorary Sponsors: Czech and Slovak Association of Canada, Czechoslovak
Baptist Church , Czechoslovak Legion, Masaryk Memorial Institute,
Inc., New Homeland (Novy Domov), Nova vize, Roman Catholic Church
of St. Wenceslaus, Satellite, Slovak Evangelical Lutheran Church
of St. Paul, Slovensky Svet, Sokol Canada.