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Course, academic year 2023/2024
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Who Controls the Past, Controls the Future? - JMMZ301
Title: Who Controls the Past, controls the Future?
Guaranteed by: Department of German and Austrian Studies (23-KNRS)
Faculty: Faculty of Social Sciences
Actual: from 2021
Semester: summer
E-Credits: 6
Examination process: summer s.:
Hours per week, examination: summer s.:1/1, Ex [HT]
Capacity: unknown / unknown (5)
Min. number of students: unlimited
4EU+: no
Virtual mobility / capacity: no
State of the course: not taught
Language: English
Teaching methods: full-time
Teaching methods: full-time
Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan
enabled for web enrollment
priority enrollment if the course is part of the study plan
Guarantor: PhDr. David Emler, Ph.D.
Incompatibility : JMM642
Examination dates   Schedule   Noticeboard   
Annotation -
Last update: PhDr. David Emler, Ph.D. (08.02.2020)
Facultative Master course "Who controls the past, controls the future?" offers a general overview of the reflexive problematics of history - i.e. uses of the past, collective memory, changing relationship between european societies and the past and the changing role of academic historians. The seminar offers introduction to the concepts of memory (Halbwachs, Nora, Ricœur, Jan & Aleida Assman), political approaches to the past (uses of the past, repentance and resentiments), hypothesis explaining the changing role of the western civilisations to the past (regimes of historicity, presentism) and reactions of academic historiography (freedom to history calls, question of history education).
Aim of the course -
Last update: PhDr. David Emler, Ph.D. (08.02.2020)

The aim of the course is to introduce students to history not as "past reality", but as contemporary reflexions of past in fields of politics, society and historiography.

Course completion requirements -
Last update: PhDr. David Emler, Ph.D. (08.02.2020)

Conditions to pass the seminar:

- active participation in the seminars

- oral presentation

- seminar paper

- oral exam, in case of higher number of participants replaced by written test/essay

Literature -
Last update: PhDr. David Emler, Ph.D. (08.02.2020)

-       Assmann, Aleida. Cultural Memory and Western Civilization: Functions, Media, Archives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.

-       Assmann, Jan. Of God and Gods: Egypt, Israel, and the Rise of Monotheism. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2008.

-       Erll, Astrid; Nünning, Ansgar (eds.). Cultural Memory Studies: An International and Interdiciplinary Handbook. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2008.

-       Halbwachs, Maurice. On Collective Memory. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1992.

-       Hartog, François. Régimes d’historicité. Présentisme et expériences du temps. Paris: Seuil, 2003.

-       Iggers, Georg G. The Global History of Modern Historiography. New York, Routledge, 2008.

-       Koselleck, Reinhart. Futures Past: On the Semantics of Historical Time. New York, Columbia University Press, 1985.

-       Lévy, Daniel. Holocaust and Memory in the Global Age. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2005.

-       Nora, Pierre (ed.). Realms of Memory I-III. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996-1998.

-       Olick, Jeffrey K. The politics of regret. On collective memory and historical responsibility, New York: Routledge, 2007.

-       Olick, Jeffrey K.; Vinitzky-Seroussi, Vered a Levy, Daniel (eds.). The Collective Memory Reader. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.

-       Ricœur, Paul. Memory, History, Forgetting. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2004.

-       Ritchie, Donald A. The Oxford Handbook of Oral History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.

-       Rousso, Henry. The Vichy Syndrome: History and Memory in France since 1944. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991.

-       Yerushalmi, Yosef Hayim. Zakhor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1984.

Teaching methods -
Last update: PhDr. David Emler, Ph.D. (08.02.2020)

Regular and active participation of students in the seminar, which encompasses regular reading of the mandatory texts to the covered topics (approx. 180 pages) and active discussion based on this reader (approx. 50 hours of work / 2 credits). Oral presentation (20 minutes) on a selected topic (approx. 50 hours of work / 2 credits). Oral examination based on the defense of small seminar paper (10 pages max.) (approx. 50 hours of work / 2 credits). In sum 6 ECTS credits.

Requirements to the exam -
Last update: PhDr. David Emler, Ph.D. (14.05.2020)

Regular and active participation in the seminar, oral presentation and oral examination based on the defense of small seminar paper.

Classification on the scale A-F:

  • 91 % and more   =>          A - excellent
  • 81-90 %             =>          B - very good 
  • 71-80 %             =>          C - good
  • 61-70 %             =>          D - average
  • 51-60 %             =>          E - acceptable
  • 0-50 %               =>          F - failed

Update: Due to the epidemiological situation and the related measures in spring 2020 the exam will take place online on of the selected platforms (MS Teams, MS Skype, Google Hangouts, Whatsapp...). Exam terms will take place in May, June, and September 2020 by prior arrangement.

Syllabus -
Last update: PhDr. David Emler, Ph.D. (08.02.2020)

1)    Introduction - question of time, reflexive look at history

-       literature: Olick, Jeffrey K.; Vinitzky-Seroussi, Vered a Levy, Daniel (eds.). The Collective Memory Reader. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.

2)    Collective memory of Maurice Halbwachs - sociological approach to the memory

-       literature: Halbwachs, Maurice. On Collective Memory. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1992.

3)    Realms of memory of Pierre Nora - historiographic approach to the memory

-       literature: Nora, Pierre (ed.). Realms of Memory I-III. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996-1998.

4)    Memory, history and forgetting of Paul Ricœur - filosofical/psychoanalytical approach to the memory

-       literature: Ricœur, Paul. Memory, History, Forgetting. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2004.

5)    Cultural and communicative memory of Jan & Aleida Assmann

-       literature: Assmann, Aleida. Cultural Memory and Western Civilization: Functions, Media, Archives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.

6)    Regimes of historicity, hypothesis of presentism

-       literature: Koselleck, Reinhart. Futures Past: On the Semantics of Historical Time. New York, Columbia University Press, 1985.

7)    American approach to the memory - Jeffrey K. Olick

-       literature: Olick, Jeffrey K. The politics of regret. On collective memory and historical responsibility, New York: Routledge, 2007.

8)    Development of historiography of contemporary history

-       literature: Iggers, Georg G. The Global History of Modern Historiography. New York, Routledge, 2008.

9)    Oral history - anglosaxon approach to the memory?

-       literature: Ritchie, Donald A. The Oxford Handbook of Oral History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.

10)  Jewish memory - holocaust heritage

-       literature: Lévy, Daniel. Holocaust and Memory in the Global Age. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2005.

11)  Trauma and ressentiment in history

-        literature: Rousso, Henry. The Vichy Syndrome: History and Memory in France since 1944. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991.

12)  Final conclusion and discussion

Entry requirements -
Last update: PhDr. David Emler, Ph.D. (08.02.2020)

This Master level facultative course requires advanced knowledge of English language and working knowledge of contemporary history at university level.

 
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