CPLT 389-1/ENG 389-2/HIST 396-2 Re-presenting the Past: History, Memory, Literature

"SMALL HISTORY” MEMORIAL PROJECT:
Over the course of the semester you will explore a particular historical experience or event from the perspectives of both history and memory and design a memorial project that demonstrates its significance, both in general and to you.

This project will entail the following steps:

• You will select a “small history” (in contrast to the big histories that we are engaging with in class) and identify an unresolved, or underacknowledged, issue that this “small history” presents.

• You will explore this issue from the perspectives of both history and memory;
• You will choose an aesthetic form in which to commemorate and/or memorialize this small history. Options include, but are not limited to, a performance, an exhibition, a public debate or forum, a photo essay, an installation, a work of conceptual art, a documentation.
• You will supplement your memorial project with a critical analysis/reflection that will serve as an introduction to and contextual framing of your project. Your framing commentary should make a case for:
  • The significance of the issue you have identified: How and why is it important? To whom? How does this history or historical event continue to resonate in the present?
  • The effectiveness of the form through which you have chosen to address it: Whom do you want to reach? How will this form enable you to do so? What do you hope to effect?

Microhistory, for the most part, uses one person, one event, one community - something small - to understand the social history of a society, usually the common men rather than the privileged class. The exact definition of microhistory and the utility of it is still very much up for debate today. While relatively new as a field, microhistory has created value in the ‘small’ and ‘limited’ by creatively navigating gaps of sources whilst using these small narratives to equip the ordinary person with a voice that is not often audible given the obsession over ‘big man (and big structure)’s history’. By providing some historical agency to these little characters in the grander narrative, the growing field of history is not only made relatable to the layman reader, but the overall narrative of socio-cultural history across the world is also made that much more complete.

Source:  Global Microhistory (BIPOC Edition)    https://guides.library.ubc.ca/c.php?g=716063&p=5106373