AHIS 27A10 - Narratives, Uses and Representations of the Past

Historians are part of the process of representing, writing and appropriating the past. Their approach is based on a quest for truth and objectivity, and on precise procedures to provide evidence. This endeavor coexists with the multiple social and political interpretations of the past, which have proliferated over the last forty years (referred to as the so-called “memory boom”). Due to memory claims, demands for reparations, ideological constructions and the “invention of tradition”, numerous and contradictory discourses have flourished and taken on various forms (literature, cinema, visual arts, commemorations, collections, etc.). As a shared object, the past is at the heart of political and social conflicts, notably through the major process of “competitive victimhood”. The very goal of this course is thus to understand the background, logic and forms of these various uses of the past, and to define the specificity of historical knowledge, its requirements and objectives, as well as its possible role in the current context of political nationalism, ideological negationism, religious fundamentalism and massive assaults against democracy.

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The module is composed of both lectures and seminars (48 hours in total). The final course grade is composed of a continuous assessment grade (2/3 of the final grade) and a final exam grade (1/3 of the final grade). The continuous assessment grade is based on performance in the seminars. It includes:

• A grade for a semester-long group project (3-5 students) based on a case study of narratives of the past (memory claims, historiographical controversy, social uses of the past, museography, etc.)
• An individual document commentary
• A participation grade

The final exam (3 hours) will consist in a document-based essay related to the themes of the lecture.