Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Fall 2017 - HUM 382 D100

Selected Topics in the Humanities II (4)

Microhistories

Class Number: 5996

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Sep 5 – Dec 4, 2017: Tue, Thu, 12:30–2:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Instructor:

    Paul Dutton
    dutton@sfu.ca
    1 778 782-3674
    Office: 5125

  • Prerequisites:

    45 units.

Description

COURSE DETAILS:

Going Small: Microhistory, Micro Medieval Studies, Micro Humanities


A course for the intellectually curious, those who like to examine intriguing little things and how they connect to the wider world. Discover your inner Sherlock Holmes, that wry social observer of human experience that lurks inside each of us. Since the 1970s there has been a particular interest in looking at the past through its odd or marginal events, people, and things. Robert Darnton called one aspect of this “incident analysis” and Carlo Ginzburg and his Italian school “microhistory.” Their approaches do not so much challenge macrohistory and large sweeping narratives as show us that big history misses much. This course will pursue the particular and the peculiar in a different way. Ginzburg’s weird miller Menocchio, medieval weather wizards, and the case of Martin Guerre’s identity theft in an early-modern village will take us on a bumpy ride through the neglected underside of European life. We shall in break-out sessions take up other revealing moments, people, and things (the Great Cat Massacre, Pieter Bruegel’s stoneheads and some mysterious guns, object histories, a monk on military campaign, and many other small inquiries), and try to explore the reach and value of pursuing little things in medieval studies, and humanities in general (in art, literature, and cultural studies).

 

*This version of HUM 382 qualifies for credit toward the Certificate in Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Grading

  • Critical Book Report 20%
  • Small Project Search 20%
  • Final Essay 40%
  • Attendance & Participation 20%

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

Magnusson and Szijarto, What is Microhistory? Theory and Practice Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller Microhistory and the Historical Imagination: New Frontiers, ed. Robischeaux (JMEMS 47.1)

Le Roy Ladurie, Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error

Davis, The Return of Martin Guerre

*all paperbacks, all also on reserve, and many available in electronic versions

Registrar Notes:

SFU’s Academic Integrity web site http://students.sfu.ca/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating.  Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.

Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the University community.  Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the University. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the University. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS