European Studies was kinda hard.. because the subject itself is already quite abstract, and no clues were given. And there was the constant cawing of a peacock just outside the LT... yeah, so. But anyway, I do hope it turns out well.. managed to write a fair bit and formulate my arguments quite coherently, so yeah :)
Anyway, it's over! To quote Juliette Binoche in the film Trois couleurs: Bleu, or Three Colours: Blue, the first film we did in European Studies 102, "I have only one thing to do now: nothing. No love, no family, no kids."
But the examination questions were really quite difficult lo.. since I've "nothing" to do now, I'll happily type out the (very long) 6 essay questions.
1. It has been argued that civil society is not only a pre-condition of democracy, but also a condition of human freedom; that is, the relationship between civil society and individual freedom is one in which each reinforces the other. Discuss this understanding of civil society with reference to at least two texts or case studies.
2. "The individual has no responsibility to the state that has no responsibility to him. But then the individual has no responsibility to his or her fellow individuals where all individuals have been made into a herd or... aceepted the norm of impersonality." (Pynsent). Discuss the ways in which the totalitarian state obliterates individual identity and personal responsibility with reference to at least one text or case study.
3. "The feeling of freedom was, well, it was truly excellent. At first it was euphoric, but shortly afterwards, it became disappointing... very little has changed in real life. That is, words don't immediately have an effect on things, and reality moves much more slowly." (from Howard). This statement expresses the disillusionment felt by many individuals in post-communist Europe. Discuss the nature of individual emotions and experiences in the context of post-communist transition with reference to at least two texts or case studies.
4. "Which way television works, though, depends on the wider context in which it functions. Here there are two key variables: who controls the medium and how culturally rich and varied is the society in which it operates. If control is too narrow and mass culture lacking in autonomy and criticality, then the links between television and civil society will indeed be tenuous". (Ginsborg). In light of Ginsborg's statement, assess the role of the media in civil society with reference to at least two case-studies.
5. Krzysztof Kieslowski commented that "under communism our descriptive tools were used for propagandist purposes. We lived according to ideals: but none of these things existed." Discuss the ways in which at least two texts studied in the course use "descriptive tools" to depict life-worlds and to critically reflect on the relationship between ideals and realities.
6. European civil societies are facing many challenges in the 21st century including technological change, changes to family, work and recreational arrangements, demographic changes, and the economic and cultural transformations associated with globalisation. But, by far the greatest threat to civil society in contemporary Europe comes from a different direction... the far right. Assess the nature of the threat posed to contemporary European civil societies by the far right.
I did Qn 3 (because i did post-communism for my major essay assignment), and Qn 4 (media). But while I was typing out these questions, I realised that Qn 6 (the far right) is actually quite managable. Moral of the story: read all the questions before you jump into doing them :X
Evaluating how the examinations have went.. surprisingly, I managed to complete all my essays on time. Minor exceptions are Political Science, where i didn't write my last one / two sentences, and History, where I wrote the second-last paragraph in point form before writing the conclusion, since I calculated I would not have enough time. Far much better than JC, when I would not be able to finish at least half of the last essay. Indeed, I'm quite amused at how quite a number of people can manage to hand in their papers half an hour before time's up, esp. if u consider that humanities exams are just a mad scribble till the end of the exam. Based on my rough estimations, I think I'm writing about 1000 or so words every hour during the exam. yeah.. as u might have figured out, I'm just hanging around by the computer writing rubbish... :)