Humanities seminar
In mid-June 2024, the first edition of the humanities seminar Sudety – Literatura – Podróż, dedicated to the Giant Mountains, ended. The theme of the project was Sudeten literary geography in informal education with a focus on history, contemporaneity and transborderity.
The seminar was subsidized as part of a pro-quality competition launched on the initiative of the Vice-Rector for Teaching dr hab. Łukasz Machaj, prof. UWr, and was organized and conducted by dr Jan Pacholski of the UWr Institute of German Studies, a literary scholar and Sudetenland guide, dr hab. Ewa Grzęda, prof. UWr, a literary scholar and head of the Laboratory of Humanistic Research on Mountain Problems at the UWr Institute of Polish Studies, and mgr Maria Koscielniak-Woźniak, PhD student, literary scholar, researcher of mountain issues.
The didactic project was designed to familiarize its participants, students of all majors offered by UWr, with the literature and culture of the Sudetenland – in the current edition the Karkonosze – in historical and transboundary terms, as well as with modern methods of humanistic research on mountain issues, carried out within the framework of mountain studies, and to indicate ways of using this knowledge in informal education in the broadest sense.
The first phase of the seminar featured two five-hour lecture series. The first block dealt with the topography of the Karkonosze Mountains, the history of their settlement and the beginnings and development of tourism in the area, with a special focus on the history of German-language literature on the Karkonosze in the 17th-19th centuries. The second covered the history of Polish Karkonosze tourism in the context of its transformations, conditioned by social and political factors, as well as an outline of Polish literature related to the Karkonosze, from its origins to the present day, discussed in relation to German and Czech literatures.
The most significant part of the seminar was a three-day teaching trip to Karpacz, which took place from May 31 to June 2. The accommodation base and lecture space was the Ecological Station “Storczyk” of the Biological Faculty of the University of Wrocław. During the field activities on the first day, students had the opportunity to learn about the history and culture of Cieplice Śląskie-Zdrój, as well as take a reading trip in the local spa park, where a variety of literary genre material was presented, documenting different kinds of impressions of multilingual authors visiting the Cieplice area. In the evening of that day, already in the “Storczyk,” seminar classes were held. The next day, the main element of the seminar was conducted, which was a field activity, conducted during a hike from the Ecological Station “Storczyk” towards the ridge of the Karkonosze Mountains. The route, which the seminar participants took partly in a torrential downpour, led along the Silesian Way (along the black trail) towards Bialy Jar and on to the PTTK “Strzecha Akademicka” mountain hut, where the group stopped for a longer stop, waiting out the worst of the storm and listening to a lecture on the history of the building – German “Hampelbaude” – and its huge role in the history of tourism in the Karkonosze. During breaks in the hike, the guide and at the same time project leader dr Jan Pacholski drew the students’ attention to the numerous literary and cultural traces found in the Karkonosze space. He also recalled the history of non-existent facilities once located there, such as the Prince Henry (German: “Prinz-Heinrich-Baude”) hostel and the Bronislaw (Bronek) Czech hostel on the Old Glade (German: “Schlingelbaude”). In the evening, the seminarians listened to a two-hour lecture on the phenomenon of the Mountain Spirit and its cross-border cultural and identity-forming role.
Sunday, 2 June, the students used the day to work on the preparation of credit projects and participated in a discussion summarizing the three-day seminar, covering both its substantive and practical aspects, which allowed them to organize and consolidate the acquired knowledge.
The final act of the event began on June 14 at 12:00 pm in the cloisters of the UWr Faculty of Letters building at pl. Biskupa Nankiera 15b in Wrocław. A poster session was held there, during which students presented the results of teamwork carried out during the seminar. Their task was to prepare thematic projects – cultural and literary – tours of the Karkonosze Mountains addressed to specific groups and their potential participants: school children, students, seniors, others. The overriding goal of these projects was to create an alternative to the commonly practiced, model concept of tours in the Karkonosze Mountains, deepening the understanding and experience of the places visited, taking into account their climatic, regional and, above all, cultural specificities. The presentation of the posters was honored with the presence of the Vice-Rector for Teaching, dr hab. Łukasz Machaj, prof. UWr, Deputy Director of the Institute of German Studies, prof. dr hab. Urszula Bonter, Director of the Institute of Polish Studies, prof. dr hab. Paweł Kaczyński, and other guests, including academic staff and UWr students.
The seminar was attended by students from the Faculty of Letters, as well as art history, geography and mathematics. Posters with tour projects will be on display at the “Fil” café in the building of the Faculty of Letters at ul. Nankiera 15b. The materials will also be published in the upcoming issue of the yearbook “Góry – Literatura – Kultura,” which is a punctual scientific journal and also the official organ of the UWr Humanities Research Group on Mountain Issues.
