MONASH UNIVERSITY FACULTY HANDBOOKS

Arts Graduate Handbook 1996

Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996

HYM4910

Using the past: three traditions

Ian Mabbett, Peter Bicknell and others

Synopsis This subject examines three great traditions of historical writing: the classics of the ancient Greeks; the works of the Islamic literati of the Middle East, India and Indonesia; and the writings of European medieval and early Renaissance historians. The parallels and contrasts within and among these traditions illuminate such themes as these writers' views of causation and the purpose of the study of history, the narrative traditions they represent, the standing of history as an intellectual activity within these societies, the authors' search for meaning and pattern in time and the social order, the admonitory role of such texts, the relevance of these works to modern historians as sources for the societies which produced them and the critical methodologies available for their use. All students will read selected extracts from major works and will further pursue particular traditions or issues which bridge these traditions in a long essay.

Assessment Essay (4000 words): 50% + Examination (2 hours): 50% + Extra assignment if taken as a 12-point subject (3000 words)

Prescribed texts

• Beveridge (tr.) The Akbar nama of Abu-l-Fazl 3 vols, Rare Books, 1973
• Guicciardini F History of Italy and history of Florence tr. C Grayson, ed. J R Hale, Washington Square
• Herodotus The histories tr. A de Selincourt Pengin, 1959
• Ibn Khaldun The Mugaddimah: An introduction to history tr. F Rosenthal, 3 vols, Pantheon, 1958
• Machiavelli N Discourses on the first ten books of Livy
• Machiavelli N History of Florence
• Otto of Freising The two cities tr. C C Mierow, Columbia UP
• Polybius The rise of the Roman Empire tr. I Scott-Kilvert, Penguin, 1979
• Ricklefs M C (ed. and tr.) Modern Javanese historical tradition: A study of an original Kartasura chronicle and related materials School of Oriental and African Studies, London, 1978
• Thucydides The Peloponnesian War tr. R Warner, Penguin, 1959