From ‘Public sphere’ to the ‘Crowd Symbols’. How Serbian Students of Modern Greek Language Perceive Greek Culture.

From ‘Public sphere’ to the ‘Crowd Symbols’. How Serbian Students of Modern Greek Language Perceive Greek Culture.

Stojicic , Vojkan
Gogas, Themistokles

The present paper investigates the way cultural aspects are formatted through learning of a foreign language. It focuses on the views Serbian students possess on Greek culture. More specifically, it examines the way Greek culture is perceived by the students of the Department of Modern Greek Language in the University of Belgrade. The study is realized in two levels. On the one the research investigates the way 1st year students perceive Greek culture. In a sense, they carry the norms provided by their secondary schooling, along with a mentality cultivated in the Habermasian ‘public sphere’ of the Serbian life-style. In parallel the research examines on the way 4th year students of the same department perceive Greek culture, which takes the form of a more normative perception, based on the ‘crowd symbols’, i.e. the theoretical frame of Elias Canetti. The difference appeared in the way Greek culture is reflected among students, indicates the catalytic role a foreign language plays on the way culture is perceived, in a more holistic approach.

Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed

2012-05

1028