HIST376

Description

There is no present and no future without the past. This is true not least when it comes to mass violence: the way societies decide about whether to engage in war or even genocide depends on their collective experiences with events of mass violence in the past, and on which lessons they have drawn from these experiences. This seminar examines how societies, nations, and political movements fabricate, transmit, and consume collective memory of war, genocide, and terror. It will inquire into different theories of, and approaches to, the concept of collective memory and apply them to major events of mass violence and political terror in the 20th century, such as World War I, World War II, the Holocaust, the Vietnam War, Apartheid, and the recent wars and the genocide in former Yugoslavia. The course will explore a broad range of different dimensions, issues, and mediums of collective memory, such as war trials, traumas, memoirs and testimonies, fictional literature and popular culture, memorials and museums and other representations of collective memory. Particular attention will be paid to how national identities shape and rely on the memory of mass violence.