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Sophomore Seminar: Europeans Remember War in the 20th-Century
HIST284 SP

In recent years, questions about the ways we remember the past have attracted wide public attention and produced considerable controversy. Both President Reagan's decision to visit a German cemetery at Bitburg and the debates about the Smithsonian exhibit on the bombing of Hiroshima have demonstrated the various contexts in which history can be, and is, produced outside of the academy. This seminar will examine the different ways that Europeans have remembered and memorialized the World Wars of th e 20th-century. We will explore the difference among official ways of remembering, individual memories, academic histories and popular accounts as we examine the different genres used to represent historical events. How did memories of World War I affect interpretations of World War II? What is at stake in the choice of particular war memorials? When we speak of collective memory, exactly whose memory is being invoked? How has mass culture affected the transmission of historical memory? What kind of hi story emerges through docudramas and documentaries? Through feature films?

MAJOR READINGS

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Unless preregistered students attend the first class meeting or communicate directly with the instructor prior to the first class, they will be dropped from the class list. NOTE: Students must still submit a completed Drop/Add form to the Registrar's Office.

COURSE FORMAT: Discussion

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS HIST    Grading Mode: Graded   

Prerequisites: NONE

Last Updated on MAR-24-2000

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