Memory and History

This course is part of the programme
Bachelor's study programme Cultural history (1st level)

Objectives and competences

• The students will learn the topics that will enrich their knowledge about the relation between history and memory studies..
• The students will learn the mechanisms of formation of the modern memory, which intertwines the individuality and generality, concrete and abstract.
• They will be capable of critical analyses of the problems. They will be able to find solutions by transferring their own or foreign experiences or by synthetizing their solutions due to the special conditions.

Prerequisites

No prerequisites are required.

Content

The course will introduce and discuss the relation between history and memory studies. It will introduce the topic of collective memory, oral history and dominant historical discourse. It focuses on the diverse forms of memory practices ( formal , collective , individual , marginalized ... ) as well as their understanding in time.

Specially the lectures will draw attention on the conflicts between cultures of memory and the role in historical representations and interpretation of the past.
Memory practice will be presented within the selected historical events and, according to the sources and methodology of work , the students will have to analyse historical texts.

Intended learning outcomes

• Students will be capable of detecting cultural-historical issues and social problems in general. They will solve these problems using different methodological approaches based on critical and self-critical judgment.
• The students will learn about different levels of historical knowledge based on different collective understanding of the past, from individual to collective memory experiences.
• The student will evaluate the past events and form their personal perspective of the topics.

Readings

Basic:

  • Maurice Halbwachs, Kolektivni spomin, Ljubljana: Studia Humanitatis, 2001 Catalogue
  • Barbara Mistzal, Theories of social remembering, Maidenhead, Open Univ. Press, 2003 Catalogue
  • Connerton, Paul How societies remember. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989 Catalogue E-version
  • Assmann, J. “Collective Memory and Cultural Memory”, New German Critique 65, 1995, 125–133 https://doi.org/10.2307/488538 E-version
  • Ollick, (ed.), Collective Memory Reader, Oxford University Press, 2011 Catalogue
  • Erll, A., Nunning (ed.), Cultural Memory Studies, Walter de Gruyer, Berlin, 2008 Catalogue E-version

Additional:

  • Širok, K. Kaleidoskop preteklosti, ZRC SAZU, 2012 Catalogue E-version
  • Oto Luthar, Marjeta Šašel Kos, Nada Grošelj, Gregor Pobežin, Zgodovina historične misli, Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, 2006 Catalogue Catalogue
  • Keith Jenkins, Re-thinking History, London − New York: Routledge, 1991 Catalogue E-version
  • Hayden White, Metahistory; The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Europe, Baltimore − London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973 Catalogue E-version
  • Bal, M., Crewe, J. and Spitzer, L. (eds.). Acts of Memory: Cultural Recall in the Present. Mieke Hanover, NH: Dartmouth College, 1999
  • Boym, S. The Future of Nostalgia. New York: Basic Books, 2001 Catalogue E-version
  • Van Dijck, J. Mediated Memories in the Digital Age, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2007 E-version
  • Jan- Werner Muller, Memory and Power in Post- War Europe, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2002 E-version
  • Avishai Margalit, Ethics of Memory, Harvard Press, 2004 E-gradivo
  • Arnold De SImine, Mediating Memory in the Museum: Trauma, Empathy, Nostalgia E-gradivo
  • (other literature by program)

Assessment

Seminar paper and oral exam.

Lecturer's references

Kaja Širok, PhD, works as the director of the National Museum of Contemporary History. Her research focuses on border regions, in connection to national historical narratives and memory studies inside the issues of identity formation, commemoriation, contested memories, (re)interpretations of history.

ŠIROK, Kaja. Kalejdoskop goriške preteklosti : zgodbe o spominu in pozabi, (Zbirka Kulturni spomin, knj. 2). Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, 2012.

GRABAR, Nika, ŠIROK, Kaja, VOVK, Martina. Parlament - tri zgodbe : arhitektura, umetnost, spomin. Ljubljana: Muzej novejše zgodovine Slovenije, 2012.

ŠIROK, Kaja, PURG, Urška. (Re)interpretacije dediščine muzejskih zbirk : oblikovanje podob preteklosti v evropskem kontekstu. V: DOLŽAN ERŽEN, Tatjana (ur.), SLAVEC GRADIŠNIK, Ingrid (ur.), VALENTINČIČ FURLAN, Nadja (ur.). Interpretacije dediščine, (Knjižnica Glasnika Slovenskega etnološkega društva, 48). Ljubljana: Slovensko etnološko društvo, 2014, str. 128-137, 279-280.

ŠIROK, Kaja: Museums Exibiting Europe (EMEE); Toolkit n.2
http://www.museums-exhibiting-europe.de/toolkit-manuals-activity-8/

ŠIROK, Kaja. Tujerodec : italijanska koncentracijska taborišča med spominom in pozabo. V: TOFFOLO, Davide. Italijanska zima. 1. izd. Ljubljana: Društvo za oživljanje zgodbe 2 koluta: Založba ZRC, ZRC SAZU, 2011,

ŠIROK, Kaja. Kolektivni spomin, pričevalec in zgodovina : diskurzivne konstrukcije preteklosti. Acta Histriae, ISSN 1318-0185, 2012, letn. 20, št. 1/2, str. 137-150.
ŠIROK, Kaja. Identitete, zgodovina in dediščina prostora - prakse spominjanja in komemoracije na Goriškem v XX. stoletju. Acta Histriae, ISSN 1318-0185, 2012, letn. 20, št. 4, str. 631-646,
ŠIROK, Kaja. Spomin in pozaba na obmejnem območju : predstave o goriški preteklosti. Acta Histriae, ISSN 1318-0185, 2010, letn. 18, št. 1/2, str. 337-358
ŠIROK, Kaja. Okus spomina : refleksija na obdobje Zavezniške vojaške uprave v življenjskih zgodbah pričevalcev. V: ŠUŠTAR, Branko (ur.), HAKL SAJE, Maja (ur.). Zgodovina je slastna : kulturna zgodovina hrane. 100 let začetka prve svetovne vojne : programska knjižica. Ljubljana: ZZDS, 2014, str. 21.

ŠIROK, Kaja. Gradnja zgodovine, ustvarjanje spomina : vojni spomeniki v vojnah spomina = Building history, creating memory : war memorials in memory wars. V: HUREMOVIČ, Tina (ur.). Disonantna dediščina 20. stoletja = Dissonant heritage of the 20th century. [Ljubljana]: Forum slovanskih kultur: = Forum of Slavic Cultures, 2013, str. 34-35

ŠIROK, Kaja. Which history? Whose memory? : the power of memory in borderland identity making. V: The wages of nationhood : conflicts, compromises and costs : convention papers. [New York: Columbia University Press], 2012,

ŠIROK, Kaja. Commemoration and remembrance practices in Slovenia : adoption of Holocaust Remembrance Day and its discursive formation in everyday Slovene media. V: The holocaust in Yugoslavia : history, memory and culture - a reappraisal. [Jerusalem]: Yad Vashem, [2013],

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