HIST241 - PERFORMING HISTORY

This seminar concentrates on the ways that various peoples in the world make their history by means other than relying on written texts alone. Over the course of the semester, we therefore may be examining such different public events and civic rituals as parades, political and religious processions, local historical pageants, carnivals, historic preservation, museums, military reenactments, and history theme parks. The emphasis in each of these forms, places, and semiotic processes will be on their identity and function as key performances that transform consciousness, shift individuals alternately into both actors and spectators, reframe the everyday as the metaphysical, and intensify the status of cultural values in the histories they present to view. Course requirements: a seminar paper, the topic of which you will discuss with me no later than week five of the course; and a working annotated bibliography and statement of your paper's main thesis. I will say more about these assignments as they approach.