Historical Memory in Modern Latin America

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• analyse connections between historical memory and national identity
• analyse debates regarding what is history,
• analyse debates regarding historical memory, particularly how historical memory is forged, reworked and/or suppressed

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• theoretical debates regarding what is history and the constitution of historical memories,
• processes of creating national identities, myths and histories
• processes of forging oppositional identities, consciousness and movements
• The suppression of historical memory.

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• work with a range of sources, taking accurate notes and keeping records
• Produce academic writing to required conventions
• communicate effectively and confidently both orally and in writing
• set and monitor goals, reflecting on your own learning and learning from feedback

The module begins with theoretical debates about historical memory, oral history and ‘what is history.’ It examines struggles over how history was remembered and forgotten in a number of Latin American countries in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the place of history in contemporary politics. The module analyses why some governments tried to exterminate Indians while others attempted to eliminate Indians by assimilation, and how these processes are remembered. It explores the ways in which violence perpetrated against different sectors of society is framed within nation building and the promotion of democracy and it examines the impact of that on memory and political activity. The module also explores how state policies conflated women with mothers, and how this played retrogressive or progressive roles in different times and places. Finally, the module assesses how Left movements were represented in official histories and collective memory. You will develop an understanding of the role of historical memory in creating national identities and how ongoing debates about the past shape the present with particular reference to the work of truth commissions.

Case studies are drawn from some of the following countries: El Salvador, Cuba, Guatemala, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Chile, Nicaragua and Mexico. Material studied will include primary and secondary sources, testimonial writing and films.

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include:

Lectures introducing the key topics

Small group seminars to discuss primary sources and secondary readings

Individual essay tutorials

Learning activities include:

Close analysis of using and evaluating primary and secondary historical texts

Extensive reading of secondary and theoretical literature

Resources & Reading list

Textbooks

Elizabeth Jelin (2003). State repression and the struggles for memory. LAB.

Daniel James (2000). Dona Maria’s Story. Duke University Press.

Erik Ching (2016). Stories of Civil War in El Salvador : A battle over memory. Chapel Hill North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press.

David Carey Jr (2017). Oral History in Latin America. Unlocking the spoken archive. New York: Routledge.

Ksenija Bilbija and Leigh A Payne eds (2011). Accounting for Violence. Marketing memory in Latin America . Durham NC: Duke University Press.

Robert Perks and Alistair Thomson (2006). The Oral History Reader. Routledge.

Lynn Abrams (2010). Oral History Theory. Routledge.

Steve Stern (2006). Remembering Pinochet’s Chile. Duke University Press.

Beatriz Manz (2004). Paradise in Ashes A Guatemalan Journey of Courage, Terror and Hope. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Priscilla Hayner (2002). Unspeakable Truths –Facing the challenge of truth commissions. Routledge.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External