2019-20

The course acquaints students with the various forms of contemporary rituals found in Greek folk culture and with the basic social and ideological parameters that inform the functioning and formation of these rituals.  It also gives them an understanding of the meaning of the evolution and of the handling of older forms of tradition and the ways in which these forms function.  The course also acquaints students with the functioning of phenomena, such as secularization, the introduction of cultural prototypes, folklorism and cultural globalization in practice, which it does through the use o

The course examines the various forms of Greek folk handicraft, such as pottery, wood carving, copper working and the work of silver- and goldsmiths, weaving, painting and architecture. The course also examines folk theatre and the popular cinema, in terms of context, technique, subject and form and its products. Particular reference is made to traditional technology, to workshops and to their economic relations, to the social position of skilled workmen, product distribution networks and their contribution to the formation of popular taste.

The course deals with the basic concepts of sociolinguistics. It deals with language in relation to the social context in which it is spoken, developed and changed. Interest focuses on the analysis of language as social practice in monolingual and multilingual communities. The course is divided into two parts: the first includes an introduction to basic concepts of sociolinguistics, such as diglossia, individual bilingualism, dominant language, language competence, language maintenance, linguistic sexism, code switching and minority language.

The course deals with the main artistic trends and tendencies in painting in Orthodox lands of eastern Europe and the Middle East. At the same time, it places particular emphasis on the historical and ideological context in which the painters worked, so as to offer an iconographic interpretation of the painting produced during the Ottoman occupation.

The course deals with the development over time of the peoples of the Balkans during the Middle Ages, from the settlement of the Slavs to the Ottoman conquest. It examines the foundation of autonomous or independent states in the Balkans and the shaping of a distinct cultural character in the region that arose from the confluence of Byzantine and Slavic culture.