Making histories
Bain Attwood and others
8 points * 3 hours per week * First semester * Clayton * Prohibitions: HSY3020
Is history useful, and, if so, what for? How do historians and others shape their accounts of the past? What are the basic steps involved in conducting a piece of historical research? This subject approaches the `making of histories' in three stages. Stage one, `using histories,' looks at how history is used (or abused); for example by the heritage industry, politicians and advertisers. Stage two, `shaping histories,' examines ways in which historical narratives are shaped by values, themes and literary conventions. And stage three, `writing histories,' focuses directly on the processes of historical representation, in part through the writing of narratives, but also through less conventional forms of expression such as film, radio and museum display. As well as `deconstructing' what others, including former history honours graduates, have written, students doing HSY3010 will have the opportunity to develop their own historical project, thereby putting the knowledge and skills they have acquired in the subject to practical use. (Please note that this subject will be repeated in second semester as HSY3020.)
Assessment
Analysis (1500 words): 25% * Essay: 40% * Research proposal: 25% * Class participation: 10%
Preliminary reading
Jenkins K Re-thinking history Routledge, 1991
Recommended texts
Barzun J and Graff H F The modern researcher HBJ, 1991
Lowenthal D The past is a foreign country CUP, 1985
Tosh J The pursuit of history: Aims, methods and new directions in the study of modern history Longmans 1984
White H The content of the form Johns Hopkins Press, 1987