Czech Language and Literature

The programme Czech Language and Literature is aimed at students interested in specialized training focused on linguistics and theoretical approaches to literature. In the extent adequate to B.A. degree, students will gain complex knowledge on contemporary Czech language and literature, an insight into their historical development and elementary knowledge of theoretical approaches to language and literature. The programme also offers numerous specialized courses providing background and perspective for possible future specialization in studies or in practice (within the linguistic orientation e.g. courses focused on dialectology, corpus linguistics, proof-reading etc., within the literary orientation e.g. courses focused on its specifics during the course of time, on fantasy, on literature for children and youth etc.). The qualification gained enriched with systematically developed readiness for professional practice will provide graduates with prerequisites for continuing the studies at the M.A. level (including the programme for future teachers) and also opens wide range of possibilities to find positions in practical life already after completing the B.A. programme. Knowledge of Czech language and literature at a professional level, the capability to use the prestigious variety of Czech for the purpose of practical communication, acquiring practical skills in work with sources of information and in creating texts provide graduates with the possibility to work in a wide range of cultural institutions and media.

The programme Czech Language and Literature offers several study plans. Students of single-subject and double-subject programmes may specialize by choosing suitable selective courses, focusing on some aspects of Czech studies from literary or linguistic points of view (the development of language, present-day codification, theories of grammar, corpus linguistics, the development of Czech literature, interpretations of fiction from viewpoints of history, theoretical approaches and criticism). The programme Czech Language and Literature includes a specialized study plan Czech for foreigners aimed at non-native speakers of Czech at high level of communication skills (B2), who strive at the complex study of Czech language and literature. Graduates with this specialization will increase their language competences to the level C2 and will also gain training providing a firm basis for further qualification in the sphere of teaching Czech as a foreign language or in the sphere of translation. This kind of B.A. study programme is not available in the Czech Republic, there is only a similar M.A. programme at the University of Ostrava.

After successfully completing his/her studies the graduate is able to:

• to have a good command of written and spoken form of Standard Czech;
• to have a good command of general linguistic terminology and to apply it when analysing specific language phenomena of language;
• to use relevant sources of information relating to the subject of study (corpuses, databases, dictionaries and works of compendial character);
• to prove elementary knowledge of the historical development of Czech (including its projection into the territorial stratification of Czech), to know its historical and comparative Slavonic basis;
• to prove complex knowledge of the development of Czech literature from its beginnings to the early 21st ct.;
• to get orientated in contemporary theoretical approaches to literature;
• to acquire the terminology of theoretical approaches to literature and to interpret literary texts using methods presented in classes;
• to write scholarly texts in accordance with academic standards.
• Graduates with the specialization Czech for Foreigners will be able to communicate in oral and written forms of Czech in accordance with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, C2 level.
• Graduates with the specialization Czech for Foreigners will be able to think about Czech language and Czech literature in an intercultural perspective.
• Graduates with the specialization Czech for Foreigners will be able to apply elementary techniques of translation in an intercultural communication.

Graduates from the single-subject B.A. programme can find positions in a wide scale of occupations where expert knowledge of Czech language and literature is required. They are able to work in media, in publishing houses and in other cultural institutions, in state administration and in the private sphere as experts ready for a wide range of work with texts, for communication with the public, for organizing events etc. Graduates form the double-subject programme can find a wider scale of positions, in relation to the other subject (e.g. in relation to journalism as editors in media, in relation to foreign languages as experts in specialized positions in publishing houses or in PR etc.). Graduates from the specialization Czech for foreigners are able to work as experts in representative offices of their home countries in the Czech Republic as well as in representative offices of the Czech Republic abroad, as language experts in private companies or in cultural institutions focused on international cooperation.

Instructions relating to formal aspects of a B.A. thesis, its minimum extent and the procedure of submitting follow current instructions of Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University. A B.A. thesis is focused on a partial aspect from the sphere of linguistics or literary studies, corresponding with issues dealt with within the B.A. programme Czech Language and Literature. A B.A. thesis is usually based on empirical research (exceptions must be approved by the supervisor). Students are s expected to prove their capability to work critically with scholarly sources, to process concepts and theoretical approaches found in the sources, to find relevant answers to assigned questions, to follow the norm relating to how sources are quoted and to process formal aspects of the thesis in accordance with requirements of the particular discipline and with scholarly standards.

After fulfilling conditions for an admission, graduates from the B.A. programme are able to continue with an M.A. programme focused on Czech studies at various universities.