The course aims to help familiarizing with methodologies, questions and concepts from the international historiography, with particular attention to the English and French language domains (without neglecting the German). At the end of the course, students will know how to handle some linguistic and conceptual tools that will support their critical reading of the texts and their orientation within the discipline.
Prerequisites:
The ability to read texts in English and at least a willingness to read (if not familiarity with the reading of) samples of French historiography are highly advisable in a module that aims to qualify students' skills in the specialist vocabulary of the major languages in the international historical research.
Contents:
The lecturers will alternate in presenting students with a selection of significant concepts and contributions to international historiography, especially from recent decades, focusing on some key issues: the status of historical knowledge and methods of its production; regimes of historicity; memory and relationships with the past; the implications of using non-written sources such as images and objects; the history of concepts; translation; public history.
Teaching Methods:
The course will be held through classroom-taught lessons, during which we will also read texts in the original language, comment on them and contextualize them within the international historiographic debate.
Texts:
During the course, the lecturers will post on the e-learning platform a series of texts that, also used in lessons, will constitute the reference bibliography to support the exam.
Alternatively, non-attending students may, if they prefer, opt for the careful reading of: F. Benigno, Parole nel tempo. Un lessico per pensare la storia, Rome, Viella, 2013 (English edn: Words in Time. A Plea for Historical Re-thinking, London, Routledge, 2017).
| Author | Title | Publisher | Year | ISBN | Note |
| F. Benigno | Parole nel tempo. Un lessico per pensare la storia (Edizione 1) | Viella | 2013 | (alternativa, opzionale per i non frequentanti, al materiale che verrà pubblicato sulla piattaforma e-learning, e costituirà da sé bibliografia sufficiente alla preparazione dell'esame) |
An oral interview will evaluate the familiarization of the student with the concepts, questions and methodologies dealt with during the course.
