Memory & Memoirs of 20th Century Europe

Subject 119-211 (2009)

Note: This is an archived Handbook entry from 2009. Search for this in the current handbook

Credit Points:

12.50

Level:

2 (Undergraduate)

Dates & Locations:

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2009:

Semester 1, - Taught on campus.

Pre-teaching Period Start	not applicable
Teaching Period	not applicable
Assessment Period End	not applicable
Last date to Self-Enrol	not applicable
Census Date	not applicable
Last date to Withdraw without fail	not applicable

Timetable can be viewed here. For information about these dates, click here.

Time Commitment:

Contact Hours: A 1 hour lecture and a 2-hour tutorial per week
Total Time Commitment: 3 contact hours/week , 5.5 additional hours/week. Total of 8.5 hours per week.

Prerequisites:

This subject is taught in English and is open to all second and third year students. European studies students wishing to enrol in this subject would normally have completed 25 points of European studies at first year level.

Corequisites:

None

Recommended Background Knowledge:

None

Non Allowed Subjects:

None

Core Participation Requirements:

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Student Support and Engagement Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Generic Skills sections of this entry.

It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability may impact on meeting the requirements of this subject are encouraged to discuss this matter with a Faculty Student Adviser and Student Equity and Disability Support: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/disability

Coordinator

Prof Anne Freadman

Contact

Professor Anne Freadman & Associate Professor Alison Lewis

freadman@unimelb.edu.au/lewisa@unimelb.edu.au

Subject Overview:	The eye-witness account and the personal memoir offer powerful ways of exploring the human legacy of overwhelming historical events on individual lives. But how do literary genres like the memoir and autobiography manage to speak about unspeakable topics, how do they represent the unrepresentable and write about trauma? What is the function, and what the effect, of writing memory for the victim, for the reader, and for the perpetrator? How do the offspring of the victims and perpetrators 'remember' their parents' traumas and shape memories of events they have only experienced second-hand? What is the relationship between fiction and memory in memoir writing and how do we read a testimonial of a Holocaust survivor that has been faked? This subject will introduce students to a selection of testimonial writing and films that tell individual stories of a shameful national past. It explores the effect of generic convention on the relation of history and memory, and the need for generic invention to speak trauma and tell the un-tellable. Its focus will be on the Holocaust, the Algerian War, and life under Eastern bloc communist regimes. This subject will focus on writing from France, Germany, and Italy in the first instance, but may from time to time include writing from other parts of Europe.
Objectives:	read attentively some major first-person testimonials and memoirs from European history; learn to contextualise memoirs of both victims and perpetrators of the Holocaust, the Algerian war and Eastern bloc communist regimes; investigate the relationship between fiction and memory and history and memory in these texts; understand the theoretical issues involved in a range of literary and cinematic genres that deal with memory; deepen their understanding of trauma through the theoretical issues raised by its writing.
Assessment:	An essay of 3000 words 70% (due at the end of semester) and a 1000 word class paper of 10 minutes duration 30% (due during semester). A hurdle requirement of a reading diary.
Prescribed Texts:	If this is a Man (P Levil) Abacus by Sphere Books 1987 An Algerian Childhood (L Sebbar (ed)) Pawel's Letters (M Maron) Harvill Press 2002 A Women in Berlin (Anonymous) Metropolitan Books 2005 After Auschwitz (C Delbo) Yale University Press 1997 Additional material to be supplied by the department
Breadth Options:	This subject potentially can be taken as a breadth subject component for the following courses: Bachelor of Biomedicine Bachelor of Commerce Bachelor of Environments Bachelor of Music Bachelor of Science Bachelor of Engineering You should visit learn more about breadth subjects and read the breadth requirements for your degree, and should discuss your choice with your student adviser, before deciding on your subjects.
Fees Information:	Subject EFTSL, Level, Discipline & Census Date
Generic Skills:	enhance their understanding of texts through reference to existing scholarship; appreciate the cultural complexity of issues that circulate in the popular media; identify and explore issues across texts from different contexts; be able to engage critically with texts in oral presentation; interpret in writing the meaning of literature with attention to social context and language.
Related Course(s):	Diploma in Modern Languages (French) Diploma in Modern Languages (Italian) Diploma in Modern Languages (Russian) Diploma in Modern Languages - Swedish
Related Majors/Minors/Specialisations:	European Studies European Studies Major French French French French Major German German German Major Italian Italian Italian Italian Major Russian Russian Russian Russian Major Spanish Spanish Spanish Major Swedish Swedish Swedish Swedish Major

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