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Regular version of the site

Memory studies

2019/2020
Academic Year
ENG
Instruction in English
3
ECTS credits
Delivered at:
Department of Humanities (Faculty of Computer Science, Economics, and Social Sciences)
Course type:
Compulsory course
When:
3 year, 3 module

Instructor


Kamenskikh, Aleksey A.

Course Syllabus

Abstract

The course offers a deep and detailed study of forms and mechanisms of social and individual memory and oblivion, it represents the analysis of the ways of constructing and reconstructing of history: what are ''the places of memory'' (les lieux de mémoire); how work ''canon'' and ''archive'' of historical memory; what are the wars of historical memories in contemporary world and in Russia and how can these wars be reconciled? What are the historical narratives and how they determine our individual or local memories? What are the traumas of social memory and how can they be pushed out or healed? Why the analysis of the ways in which we represent our past say more about our present and future? So, using Paul Connerton's statements – how societies remember and how modernity forgets?
Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives

  • Theoretical introduction into the complex of problems, connected with the social memory: key notions of collective and individual memory, collective and individual identity (reading and discussion the classical works of Maurice Halbwachs, Paul Connerton, Aleida Assmann)
  • Theoretical and practical study the methods of the historical narratives’ analyzing (here the main role belongs to the study of the works of Hayden White and Frank Ankersmit and to practical analytical classes)
  • Study the problems of the politics of memory; the conflicts and reconciliation of memories – in Russia and in the world
  • The study of problems connected with traumas of social memory and forms of crowding out of the traumatic content; the ways of expression and transmission of traumatic experience
Expected Learning Outcomes

Expected Learning Outcomes

  • A student orients he/she-self in variety of conceptual approaches to the phenomena of social memory, its connection with the problematics of values and identity, its dependence on the social and political changes
  • A student owns the methods of revealing and analysis of historical narratives
  • A student knows the history of the main forms of memorial practices, state and civil, in Russia and in the world; understands the value complexes which underlie the competitive forms of historical memories
  • A student prepares, presents and discuss the projects of researches and of commemorative practices
Course Contents

Course Contents

  • Section 1. Memory, individual and collective. Social frameworks of memory. Memory and identity. Social mechanisms of remembrance and oblivion. Aleida Assmann’s concepts of “canon” and “archive” of social memory
  • Section 2. Types of historical narratives and methods of their analysis: Hayden White, Frank Ankersmit, Aleida Assmann
  • Section 3. Memory and state: the politics of memory. Practices of the civil commemoration. Contention of historical narratives. Conflicts and reconciliation of memories
  • Section 4. Traumatic memory and the ways of its expression and transmission. Memory and responsibility
Assessment Elements

Assessment Elements

  • non-blocking Written control work (essay/project of a research/project of a form of commemoration)
  • non-blocking Seminar discussions and presentations
  • Partially blocks (final) grade/grade calculation Written exam
    Экзамен проводится в письменной форме с использованием асинхронного прокторинга ВШЭ. Экзамен проводится на платформе Дистанционные испытания НИУ ВШЭ, прокторинг на платформе Экзамус (https://hse.student.examus.net). К экзамену необходимо подключиться за 15 минут. На платформе Экзамус доступно тестирование системы. Компьютер студента должен удовлетворять следующим требованиям: https://elearning.hse.ru/data/2020/05/07/1544135594/Технические%20требования%20к%20ПК%20студента.pdf) Для участия в экзамене студент обязан: заранее зайти на платформу прокторинга, провести тест системы, включить камеру и микрофон, подтвердить личность. Во время экзамена студентам запрещено: общаться (в социальных сетях, с людьми в комнате), списывать, пользоваться собственными письменными конспектами (в тетради или на распечатанных листах). Кратковременным нарушением связи во время экзамена считается прерывание связи до 5 минут. Долговременным нарушением связи во время экзамена считается прерывание связи 5 минут и более. При долговременном нарушении связи студент не может продолжить участие в экзамене. Процедура пересдачи аналогична процедуре сдачи.
  • non-blocking independent work: preparation of an essay/a plan of research work/a memorial project
Interim Assessment

Interim Assessment

  • Interim assessment (3 module)
    0.1 * independent work: preparation of an essay/a plan of research work/a memorial project + 0.3 * Seminar discussions and presentations + 0.2 * Written control work (essay/project of a research/project of a form of commemoration) + 0.4 * Written exam
Bibliography

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

  • Hartog, F., & Brown, S. (2015). Regimes of Historicity : Presentism and Experiences of Time. New York: Columbia University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=953998

Recommended Additional Bibliography

  • Black, J. (2015). Clio’s Battles : Historiography in Practice. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=992100
  • Disputed memory : emotions and memory politics in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe / edited by Tea Sindbæk Andersen and Barbara Törnquist-Plewa. (2016). Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edswao&AN=edswao.459207857
  • François Hartog. (2019). La trame du présent [The Plot of the Present]. Critical Hermeneutics, (1), 1. https://doi.org/10.13125/CH/3873
  • Giesen, B., & Eisenstadt, S. N. (2016). Triumph and Trauma. London: Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1106282
  • Tismăneanu, V. (2010). Coming to Terms with a Traumatic Past: Reflections on Democracy, Atonement, and Memory. History of Communism in Europe, 1, 15–20. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=30h&AN=82085611