History And Fictional Representation

The course will be in the format of 4-hour seminars where various subjects related to history and fiction will be explored. Students will be asked to think critically about the nature of history, its aims and its differences from (or similarities to) other forms of writing. The course will require students to analyze works classified as ?history? and ?fiction? and to question that divide. Several issues in historical writing will be discussed such as those that question its objectivity and factual nature. These include orientalism in historical writing and the influence of colonialism in historical narratives; the subjectivity of the author; the representational differences between primarily literate and primarily oral cultures; the nature of narrative and the implications of causality; the influence of race, sex and subalternality on the resulting history; the impact of medium on history through analyzing film, television series, graphic novels and games as vehicles of history; and lastly, reading historical works that have been seriously contended.