Admission requirements
History students should have successfully completed their propaedeutic exam and both second-year BA-seminars, one of which in Algemene Geschiedenis. By choosing this seminar, students also choose Algemene Geschiedenis as their BA graduation specialisation.
Description
In the first half the twentieth century, Europe was the site of two wars that depleted the world’s population, dislocated millions, and led to the dissolution of global empires. Even as the continent managed to rebuild, progress occurred under the shadow of two hegemonic superpowers capable of incinerating not just both sides of the Iron Curtain but the entire planet. In a 1966 profile of Bertolt Brecht for The New Yorker, Hannah Arendt wrote of “the terrible freshness of the postwar world”—in which all that poets could do in the rubble was laugh at the sky that remained. As Europe destroyed and reinvented itself in the twentieth century, how did humor serve as a tool for working through the past and its relation to the present?
This course will draw on sources in various media to examine how comedy can be a means of not just coping with history but investigating it. In The Great Cat Massacre, historian Robert Darnton showed why excavating “bad jokes” that test taboos can be particularly valuable to cultural historians interested in reconstructing popular worldviews of moments (more and less) distant from our own. In this class, we will consider humor as a tool of historical analysis, subversion, and mourning and pay particular attention to the boundaries and historicity of taste. Using Darnton’s methodology, students will analyze and contextualize editorial cartoons, art exhibitions, novels, newspapers, and several films. The syllabus will span from Czech satirist Karel Čapek’s blistering and prescient interwar pastiche, War with the Newts, up to contemporary films by directors like Yasemin Şamdereli and Dani Levy. All assigned readings will be available in English translation, with students who are able encouraged to read in the original languages. Students will attend weekly seminars, give oral presentations, and write a research-driven term paper based on primary sources.
Course objectives
General learning objectives
The student can:
- Devise and conduct research of limited scope, including:
a. identifying relevant literature, selected and ordered according to a defined principle;
b. organising and using relatively large amounts of information;
c. analysing a scholarly debate;
d. placing the research within the context of a scholarly debate.
2) Write a problem-solving essay and give an oral presentation after the format defined in the first year Themacolleges, including:
a. using a realistic schedule of work;
b. formulating a research question and subquestions;
c. formulating a well-argued conclusion;
d. giving and receiving feedback;
e. responding to instructions of the lecturer. - Reflect on the primary sources on which the literature is based.
- Select and use primary sources for their own research.
- Analyse sources, placing and interpreting them in a historical context.
- Participate in class discussions.
Learning objectives, pertaining to the specialisation
The student has:
- Knowledge of a specialisation, more specifically in the specialisation General History: of the place of European history from 1500 in a worldwide perspective, with a focus the interaction of culture and politics.
- Knowledge and insight in the main concepts, research methods and techniques of the specialisation, more specifically in the specialisation General History: of the study of primary sources and the context specificity of nationally defined histories.
Learning objectives, pertaining to this specific seminar
The student can:
- Understand major forces that have reshaped the European continent and its cultures over the last century, including total war, the dissolution of empires, population displacement, the rise of the Iron Curtain, decolonization, economic and technological development, social movements focused on gender and sexuality, and European integration.
- Use methods and sources in the field of European cultural history;
- Critically evaluate comedic theories as tools in cultural history.
Timetable
The timetables are available through MyTimetable.
Mode of instruction
- Seminar (compulsory attendance)
This means that students have to attend every session of the course. If you are not able to attend, you are required to notify the teacher beforehand. The teacher will determine if and how the missed session can be compensated by an additional assignment. If specific restrictions apply to a particular course, the teacher will notify the students at the beginning of the semester. If you do not comply with the aforementioned requirements, you will be excluded from the seminar.
Assessment method
Assessment
Written paper (6000-7000 words, based on problem-oriented research using primary sources, excluding front page, table of contents, footnotes and bibliography)
measured learning objectives: 1-5, 7-11Oral presentation
measured learning objectives: 3-6Participation
measured learning objectives: 6-11
Weighing
Written paper: 70%
Oral presentation: 10%
Particiation: 20%
The final grade for the course is established by determining the weighted average with the additional requirement that the written paper must always be sufficient. Attendance must also be sufficient; students may only miss up to two class sessions.
Resit
The written paper can be revised, when marked insufficient. Revision should be carried out within the deadline as provided in the relevant course outline on Brightspace.
Inspection and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organised.
Reading list
Karel Čapek, War with the Newts (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1996).
Other readings, films, and visual materials will be made available through Brightspace and the library reserves.
Please note: we will discuss the entire novel early in the course, so it is highly recommended that students begin to read it before the semester begins.
Registration
Registration is done via a form that all History students receive on the day registrations open.
If there is insufficient interest, seminars may be canceled and students will make an alternative choice in consultation with their study advisor.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Huizinga.
Remarks
Course will be conducted in English with opportunities for small-group discussion in Dutch. All written work must be submitted in English.