Monash University Handbook 2011 Postgraduate - Unit

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Notes

Synopsis

How is genocide seen and how is it imagined? Can there be poetry after Auschwitz? This unit will inquire into how genocides are represented both during and after the events. These acts of representation are instrumental in shaping, interpreting, responding to, and historicising genocides. This unit covers the interpretive and methodological skills necessary for analysing the texts, styles and mediums (e.g. genocidal rhetoric, news media, foreign policy, NGO reports, and testimony) that commonly represent genocide. Students will explore questions of representation, conduct historical research, and write contemporary histories that draw upon modern media archives.

Objectives

Upon successful completion of this unit students will have:

1. an understanding of debates on representation
2. critical skills in interpreting media, reports, policy, and international conventions
3. an understanding of genocide witnessing through diaries, journals and testimony
4. and, the capacity to conduct research using modern media archives.
5. In addition, students undertaking this unit at fifth-year level will be expected to have the ability to propose original research questions and conduct independent research.

Assessment

Written work: 90%
Class participation: 10%

Contact hours

One 2-hour seminar per week

Prohibitions

ATS4298 and APG4298