Carnegie Mellon University
Spring 2002
Sigurdur Gylfi Magnusson

Topics and Objectives

Scandals and trials provide an exemplary opportunity for an analysis which deals specifically with human memory and its function in historical context. Scandals and trials are likely to open up a window into the past where students of history can get an opportunity to try out their sense for the past and test ideas which traditional history has been eager to formalize.

In this mini-course we will read and discuss a selection of recent monographs which deal with topics related to scandals and trials. The goal is to explore the potential and limitations of this form of historical writing and study how people who we tend to group with “the others” can draw out the function of the society at large. We will discuss the importance of memory in this respect and how it is used by those who participate in historical events to created a forum for interaction between themselves, the events, and their collective memory.  We will be dealing with the concepts of “historical memory”, “collective memory” and “individual memory” and we will map out the meaning and importance of these historical concepts. In this course we will be able to deal with microhistorical subjects and evaluate the relevance they have for historical research. 

Students are expected to develop their critical reading skills and work on their analytical abilities. This is going to be done with careful examination of every single assigned reading. Students are expected to focus on how arguments are constructed, what kind of sources are used and weaknesses in the over all approach. The course will follow a discussion format and preparation for every class is a necessity along with active participation in the discussion. The goal is to introduce students to important issues in history, deal with some path braking historical studies and conceptual framework which can direct them in their future reading and research.

Grading

1. In the beginning of every class students hand in a brief summery of the days reading (one to two paragraphs). This along with class participation and attendance will account for 30% of the grade.

2. Students will work on one paper (10-15 pages) throughout out the course and present their findings on the day of the class. This will account for 70% of the grade. This will not be the type of paper students are used to write in their course work, it will be an experiment where local newspapers material prior to 1950 is used as a fodder for the research. Students are expected to focus on some specific event and try to write a proposal for an successful historical research.

Course Material

– Natalie Zemon Davis: The Return of Martin Guerre (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1983).

– Augus McLaren: A Prescription for Murder. The Victorian Serial Killing of Dr. Thomas Neill Cream (Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1993).

– Alain Corbin: The Village of Cannibals. Rage and Murder in France, 1870. Translated by Arthur Goldhammer (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1992).

– Michael S. Roth: The Ironist’s Cage. Memory, Trauma, and the Construction of History (New York, Columbia University Press, 1995).

Additional reading will be used throughout the course and will be found at the Library.

Class Schedule

Week 1

I. Introduction

– The class schedule will be discussed and the concept of memory introduced. The conceptual framework for the course will be laid out and some important methology for historical research like microhistory will be used to demonstrate the individual cases which will be dealt with in the course.

II. Memory

– What is the importance of memory for the business of history? The class will deal with a question like that in this first week of study and other related to memory. An attempt will be made to lay out why memory has become an important topic of study in historical research in recent times. Also, microhistory as a conceptual framework for research which might be called “flaky” in some circles, is going to be introduced with some specific reference to scandals and trials.

Reading:

– Peter Burke, „History and Social Memory.“ Memory: History, Culture and the Mind. Edited by Thomas Butler (New York, 1989), bls. 97-113.

– Susan A. Crane, “Writing the Individual Back into Collective Memory.”  American Historical Review 102 (December 1997), bls. 1372-1385.

Additional Reading:

– Alon Confino, “Collective Memory and Cultural History: Problems and Method.” American Historical Review 102 (December 1997), bls. 1386-1403. – Memory and History in Twentieth-Century Australia. Edited by Kate Darian-Smith and Paula Hamilton (Melbourne, 1994).

– Museum and Memory. Edited by Susan A. Crane (Stanford, CA., 2000).

Week 2

I. Memory and Trauma

We are going to focus on some specific examples of memory as it shows in different angels of society and discuss what kind of importance it has for the study of history. Does it change our images of the past and does it reveal to us that the past is an illusions; that it only exist in our head?

Reading:

– Michael S. Roth: The Ironist’s Cage. Memory, Trauma, and the Construction of History (New York, Columbia University Press, 1995).

Additional Reading:

– Iwona Irwin-Zarecka, Frames of Remembrance. The Dynamics of Collective Memory (New Brunswick, 1994).

– Nancy Wood, Vectors of Memory: Legacies of Trauma in Postwar Europe. New York: Berg. 1999

Film:

– Memento

II. Microhistory

In this section of the course we will focus on microhistory and its importance for the type of studies we are dealing with in this course. Since scandals, trials and rumors are often linked with some specific events or small incidents, the methods of microhistory will help us to demonstrate our conceptual framework in this course.

Reading:

– Giovanni Levi: “On Microhistory.” New Perspectives on Historical Writing. Edited by Peter Burke (University Park, Pennsylvania, The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1991), pp. 93-113. 

Additional Reading:

– Edward Muir, “Introduction: Observing Trifles.” Microhistory & the Lost People of Europe. Edited by Edward Muir and Guido Ruggiero. Translated by Eren Branch (Baltimore, 1991), bls. vii-xxviii. – John Martin, “Review Essay: Journeys to the World of the Dead: The Work of Carlo Ginzburg.” Journal of Social History 25 (Spring 1992), bls. 613-626. – Edward Muir, “Reviews: Clues, Myths, and the Historical Method. By Carlo Ginzburg.” Journal of Social History 25 (Fall 1991), bls. 123-125. – Alf Lüdtke, “Introduction. What is the History of Everyday Life and Who are Its Practitioners?“  The History of Everyday Life. Reconstructing Historical Experiences and Ways of Life. Edited by Alf Lüdtke. Translated by William Templer (Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1995), bls. 3-40.   – Jim Sharpe, “History from Below.” New Perspectives on Historical Writing. Edited by Peter Burke (University Park, Pennsylvania, The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1991), bls. 24-41.

Week 3

I.  Microhistory and its Meaning

In this class we are going to focus on one article which deals with some very interesting topics relating to microhistory. It demonstrates the many possibilities which microhistory gives historians to focus on issues which normally are not on their agenda.

Reading:

– Carlo Ginzburg, „Microhistory: two or three things that I know about it.“ Critical Inquiry 20 (Autumn 1993), bls. 10-35.

Additional Reading: 

– Carlo Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms. The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller. Translated by John and Anne Tedeschi (Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980).

– Carlo Ginzburg, „Proofs and Possibilities: In the Margins of Natalie Zemon Davis' The Return of Martin Guerre.“ Yearbook of Comparative and General Literature 37 (1988), bls. 114-127.

– Carlo Ginzburg, „Checking the Evidence: The Judge and the Historian.“ Critical Inquiry 18 (Autumn 1991), bls. 79-92.

– History from Crime. Edited by Edward Muir and Cuido Ruggiero. Translated by Corrada Biazzo Curry, Margaret A. Gallucci, and Mary M. Gallucci (Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins University Pess, 1994).

II. Microhistory Continues

We will continue with our discussions on microhistory and pay specific attention to the German version of it which is called Alltagsgeschichte in German. At that point, we should be ready to start on some specific cases where we have the opportunity to deal with the methods of microhistory and it is played out in connection with collective memory, historical memory and individual memory.

Reading:

– Alf Lüdtke, “Introduction: What is the History of Everyday Life and Who are its Practitioners? The History of Everyday Life. Reconstructing Historical Experiences and Ways of Life. Edited by Alf Lüdtke. Translated by William Templer (Princeton, N.J., 1995), pp. 3-40.

Additional Reading:

­– Alf Lüdtke, “The Historiography of Everyday Life: The Personal and the Political.” Culture, Ideology and Politices. Edited by Raphael Samuel and Gereth Stedman Jones (London, 1983), pp. 38-54.

– Geoff Eley, “Labor History, Social History, Alltagsgeschichte: Experience, Culture, and the Politics of the Everyday–a New Direction for German Social History?” Journal of Modern History 61 (June 1989), pp. 297-343.

– Edward Berenson, The Trial of Madame Caillaux (California, University of California Press, 1992).

– Judith C. Brown, Immodest Acts. The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy (New York, Oxford University Press, 1986).

Week 4

I. 16^th Century France

In this class we will read a very well known monograph which has got a lot of attentions in the world of scholarship. The case is also well known and it has been on the lips of the French people for centuries and in modern times it got an new life when a film was made based on the story. We are going to study the many different presentation of the case and how historians have dealt with it.

Reading:

– Natalie Zemon Davis, The Return of Martin Guerre (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1983).

Additional Reading:

– Jean de Coras, „Memorable Decision of the High Court of Toulouse ...“ Triquarterly 55 (1982), bls. 86-103.

Film:

– The Return of Martin Guerre.

II. Martin Guerre Continues

We will in this class discuss how historians have dealt with the very challenging approach of telling the story of Martin Guerre as Davis handled it and how she defended her own position.

Reading:

– Robert Findlay, „The Refashioning of Martin Guerre.“ American Historical Review 93 (1988), bls. 553-571.

– Natalie Davis, „On The Lame.“ American Historical Review 93 (1988), bls. 572-603.

Additional Reading:

– Carlo Ginzburg, „Proofs and Possibilities: In the Margins of Natalie Zemon Davis' The Return of Martin Guerre.“ Yearbook of Comparative and General Literature 37 (1988), bls. 114-127.

Week 5

I. The Role of Rumor in Real Life

This time we will try to focus on the importance of rumor in the daily routine of people and how it can turn against its participants. We will analysis one particular case which shows how important crowd behavior can be and how its consequences.

Reading:

– Alain Corbin: The Village of Cannibals. Rage and Murder in France, 1870. Translated by Arthur Goldhammer (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1992).

Additional Reading:

– Gene Bucker, Giovanni and Lusanna. Love and Marriage in Renaissance Florence (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1986).

– Thomas Kuehn, „Reading Microhistory: The Example of Giovanni and Lusanna.“ Journal of Modern History 61 (1989), bls. 512-534.

II. The Village of Cannibals – Continues

We will finish the book The Village of Cannibals and try to focus on its important as source of information in terms of how memory works and whether the microhistorical approach leads us to some important conclusions.

Reading:

– Alain Corbin: The Village of Cannibals. Rage and Murder in France, 1870. Translated by Arthur Goldhammer (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1992).

Week 6

I. Prostitution and Murder in History

The plan is to focus on this book for two weeks and us part of the time for students presentations. The focus will be on a very important microhistorical study which gives us an opportunity to explore that methology at its best. This week we will focus on the first part of the book and in the general situation which murder of this sort took place.

Reading:

– Augus McLaren: A Prescription for Murder. The Victorian Serial Killing of Dr. Thomas Neill Cream (Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1993). – Part One.

II. Prostitution and Murder in History – Continues

Reading:

– Augus McLaren: A Prescription for Murder. The Victorian Serial Killing of Dr. Thomas Neill Cream (Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1993). – Part One.

Week 7

I. Prostitution, Abortion, Blackmail, Doctors, Detectives, Degenerates and Women

During this week we will try to focus on the concept introduced in the heading of this class and make an attempt to demonstrate the importance of them for our understanding of history.

Reading:

– Augus McLaren: A Prescription for Murder. The Victorian Serial Killing of Dr. Thomas Neill Cream (Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1993). – Part Two.

II. Prostitution, Abortion, Blackmail, Doctors, Detectives, Degenerates and Women

Reading:

– Augus McLaren: A Prescription for Murder. The Victorian Serial Killing of Dr. Thomas Neill Cream (Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1993). – Part Two.

Week 8

I. and II. The Final analysis and Students Papers presented

We will wrap the class up in this final week and give the students an opportunity to deliver their papers.