HYM4085

Reading History

(ART)

Jane Drakard and others

6 points + 2 hour seminar per week + First semester + Clayton + Prohibition: HSY3080

Synopsis: This unit focuses on the types, or 'genres', of historical sources: their origins and history, the uses made of them by their originators and by later historians, and how they may be read. 'Reading' includes the interpretation of visual, oral, architectural and material sources as well as textual ones. Themes will include the translation of oral communication into writing and the rendering of writing into print; issues of authorship and audience; the construction of inquisitorial, confessional and narrative sources; the rise of the press and the history of the newspaper; the interpretation of maps, photographs, and documentary film; and architectural analysis.

Assessment: Classroom exercise (750 words): 20% + Critical essay (2750 words): 50% + Project/thesis proposal (1000 words): 30%+ Students taking this unit at Level 4 will be expected to critically analyse a wider range of genres and develop a more sophisticated array of questions concerning issues of authorship and interpretation.