Module overview
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge and Understanding
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- The suppression of historical memory.
- theoretical debates regarding what is history and the constitution of historical memories,
- processes of creating national identities, myths and histories
- processes of forging oppositional identities, consciousness and movements
Transferable and Generic Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- work with a range of sources, taking accurate notes and keeping records
- Produce academic writing to required conventions
- communicate effectively and confidently both orally and in writing
- set and monitor goals, reflecting on your own learning and learning from feedback
Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- analyse connections between historical memory and national identity
- analyse debates regarding historical memory, particularly how historical memory is forged, reworked and/or suppressed
- analyse debates regarding what is history,
Syllabus
The module begins with theoretical debates about historical memory, oral history and ‘what is history.’ It examines struggles over how history was remembered and forgotten in a number of Latin American countries in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the place of history in contemporary politics. The module analyses why some governments tried to exterminate Indians while others attempted to eliminate Indians by assimilation, and how these processes are remembered. It explores the ways in which violence perpetrated against different sectors of society is framed within nation building and the promotion of democracy and it examines the impact of that on memory and political activity. The module also explores how state policies conflated women with mothers, and how this played retrogressive or progressive roles in different times and places. Finally, the module assesses how Left movements were represented in official histories and collective memory. You will develop an understanding of the role of historical memory in creating national identities and how ongoing debates about the past shape the present with particular reference to the work of truth commissions.
Case studies are drawn from some of the following countries: El Salvador, Cuba, Guatemala, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Chile, Nicaragua and Mexico. Material studied will include primary and secondary sources, testimonial writing and films.
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
Teaching methods include:
Lectures introducing the key topics
Small group seminars to discuss primary sources and secondary readings
Individual essay tutorials
Learning activities include:
Close analysis of using and evaluating primary and secondary historical texts
Extensive reading of secondary and theoretical literature
Type | Hours |
---|---|
Independent Study | 126 |
Teaching | 24 |
Total study time | 150 |
Resources & Reading list
Textbooks
Priscilla Hayner (2002). Unspeakable Truths –Facing the challenge of truth commissions. Routledge.
Beatriz Manz (2004). Paradise in Ashes A Guatemalan Journey of Courage, Terror and Hope. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Robert Perks and Alistair Thomson (2006). The Oral History Reader. Routledge.
Ksenija Bilbija and Leigh A Payne eds (2011). Accounting for Violence. Marketing memory in Latin America. Durham NC: Duke University Press.
Erik Ching (2016). Stories of Civil War in El Salvador : A battle over memory. Chapel Hill North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press.
Daniel James (2000). Dona Maria’s Story. Duke University Press.
Elizabeth Jelin (2003). State repression and the struggles for memory. LAB.
Steve Stern (2006). Remembering Pinochet’s Chile. Duke University Press.
David Carey Jr (2017). Oral History in Latin America. Unlocking the spoken archive. New York: Routledge.
Lynn Abrams (2010). Oral History Theory. Routledge.
Assessment
Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Individual Oral Presentation | 10% |
Essay | 45% |
Blog | 45% |
Referral
This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Blog | 45% |
Individual Oral Presentation | 10% |
Analytical essay | 45% |
Repeat
An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Blog | 45% |
Analytical essay | 45% |
Individual Oral Presentation | 10% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal & External