Cultural Memory and Citizenship

Course goals

Basic knowledge of the interdisciplinary field of cultural memory studies, with specific reference to the arts; familiarity with some key debates on particular issues/concepts; ability to apply theoretical insights critically to particular cases; formulate productive questions for research in this particular field and reflect on the appropriate methodologies for doing so.

Content

The interdisciplinaryfield of cultural memory studies brings together researchers with a scholarly interest in the cultural production of memory and its role in shaping collective identities and values. In this seminar, we survey the most recent theoretical literature on these issues and examine the changing memory cultures of the modern period against the background of war and societal change.
 
How do cultural memory and collective identity work together?  How does commemoration shape notions of citizenship, of who 'belongs' and who doesn't? How do remembering and forgetting shape ideas about the future? How do new counter-memory narratives emerge in society?  What role do the arts play in these processes? Our seminar will provide an introduction to theoretical debates and current research in the interdisciplinary field of cultural memory studies. Our approach will be comparative and multimedial. While paying special attention to literature, we will look at creative writing alongside and in interaction with the other media and artistic practices through which the past is publicly remembered (monuments, movies, rituals, museums, family albums). 

 

Additional information

This seminar is a compulsory part of the Research MA Comparative Literary Studies; and is an elective for students in the following Research master programmes: Gender Studies; Media, Art and Performance Studies, Nederlandse Literatuur en Cultuur and Religious Studies. It is open to exchange students at MA level in Comparative Literature and related humanities fields. 

Career orientation:
This course helps prepare for a PhD training in the Humanities; it also offers training in transferable skills that are valuable in non-academic careers (critical writing, comparative analysis of a broad range of cultural media; data collection and management).

Early Exit option for international exchange students (5 ECTS)
 
Exchange students who are required to return to their home university before January, are allowed to choose an Early Exit option for this course. The Early Exit option means that students can finish the course before Christmas break, receiving 5 ECTS for the course. Students must make arrangements with the course coordinator at the start of the course.