Microhistory and history from below 2900-MK3-MHFB
Historians often use the term micro-history to justify focusing on a single case study. However, it is rarely followed up by a deeper reflection on the questions of scale and agency, problems crucial to micro-historical writing. This course aims to shed light on the practical and ethical implications of choosing to focus on a micro-scale in historical research.
The course will explore topics such as human and non-human agency, the relationship between macro (planetary, global, transnational and national) and micro (local, institutional, individual) scales, and the connection between the/a historical reality and historiography.
We will also analyze micro-history as a literary practice and ethical stance, and examine its multidisciplinary context within anthropology, philosophy, environmental studies, and political sciences.
The course will cover both theoretical texts and practical applications of micro-historical theories.
Rodzaj przedmiotu
Tryb prowadzenia
lektura monograficzna
w sali
Założenia (opisowo)
Koordynatorzy przedmiotu
Efekty kształcenia
After completing this course, students will be able to define micro-history, history from below, and Altagsgeschichte. They will be able to recall prominent historians using these methodologies and practices. Students will be able to analyze micro-historical texts critically and identify differences between them.
Students will be able to tie the development of micro-history and other similar history-writing practices to the developments in other disciplines (in particular, anthropology and political sciences).
Students will understand the notion of human and non-human agency in history. Students will understand ethical concerns relating to writing texts (not only historical texts) centred on the agency of the oppressed, colonized, and subaltern and will be able to reflect on the ethics of their own work from this perspective.
Students will understand the notion of scale and the implications of changing the scale of historical research.
Students will comprehend the difference between inductive and deductive reasoning.
Students will be able to choose appropriate topics, questions, and methods of analysis in order to write their own micro-histories effectively.
Kryteria oceniania
Students will be assessed based on their participation in discussions. Students who are less active may be required to submit a short report.
One absence is allowed without any consequences. A short report on the readings is required in case of a second absence. More than three abscences, unless a serious reason is given, will result in a "non-clasified" grade.
Literatura
This is a general bibliography and not a reading list. The readings will be available on the Kampus platform.
Lucio Biasiori, “Some Queries about “Some Queries””, Cromohs - Cyber Review of Modern Historiography 18 (2013): 118–22
S. Clark, Thick Description, Thin History: Did Historians Always Understand Clifford Geertz?. In: Alexander, J.C., Smith, P., Norton, M. (eds) Interpreting Clifford Geertz. Cultural Sociology. Palgrave Macmillan, New York 2011.
Ilaria Favretto, Toilets and resistance in Italian factories in the 1950s, Labor History, 2019, pp. 646-665
Jean-Paul A. Ghobrial, The Secret Life of Elias of Babylon and the Uses of Global Microhistory, “Past and Present”, 222 (1), 2014, pp. 51-93
Carlo Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller, Baltimore 1992, pp. xiii-xxvi.
Carlo Ginzburg, Inquisitor as Anthropologist, in: idem, Clues, myths, and the historical method, Baltimore 1990.
Carlo Ginzburg, “Checking the Evidence: The Judge and the Historian.” Critical Inquiry, vol. 18, no. 1, 1991, pp. 79–92.
Carlo Ginzburg, “Morelli, Freud and Sherlock Holmes: Clues and Scientific Method”, History Workshop Journal 9, nr 1 (1980): 5–36
Jason C. Hribal, "Animals, agency, and class: Writing the history of animals from below.", 2007, Human Ecology Review, pp. 101-112.
Giorgio Levi, “On Microhistory” in: New Perspectives on Historical Writing, ed. by Peter Burke, State College 1992, pp. 93-113.
Alf Lüdtke, Introduction. What is the history of everyday life and who are its practitioners?, in: The history of everyday life: reconstructing historical experiences and ways of life, ed. Alf Lüdtke, Princeton 1995, pp. 3-5, 20-23.
Alf Lüdtke, The “honor of labor”: industrial workers and the power of symbols under national socialism, in: Nazism and German Society, 1933-1945, ed. David F. Crew, London and New York 1994.
Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon, Far-reaching microhistory: the use of microhistorical perspective in a globalized world, Rethinking History, 21 (2017), no. 3: 312-341
Gabrielle Hecht. 2018. “Interscalar Vehicles for an African Anthropocene: On Waste, Temporality, and Violence.” Cultural Anthropology 33 (2018), no. 1: 109–141.
James C. Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts. Yale University Press, 1990
E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class, London 1968.
Francesca Trivellato, Is There a Future for Italian Microhistory in the Age of Global History? California Italian Studies, 2 (2011), no. 1.
Więcej informacji
Dodatkowe informacje (np. o kalendarzu rejestracji, prowadzących zajęcia, lokalizacji i terminach zajęć) mogą być dostępne w serwisie USOSweb: