Module Information

Module Identifier
GG37920
Module Title
Geographies of Memory
Academic Year
2013/2014
Co-ordinator
Dr Gareth Charles Hoskins
Semester
Intended for use in future years

Course Delivery

Delivery Type Delivery length / details
Lecture 10 x 3 hour lectures which involves group work and discussion
 

Assessment

Assessment Type Assessment length / details Proportion
Semester Assessment ESSAY  One coursework essay of up to 3,000 words.  50%
Semester Exam 2 Hours   EXAMINATION  Seen written examination.  50%
Supplementary Assessment RESUBMISSION  Resit due to aggregate failure or non-completion of part of the assessment requires re-examination of each of the main components if marks of <40% in both were obtained, or re-examination or re-submission of the failed component (examination or assignment) to obtain a maximum mark of 40% for the module. A new exam paper and/or essay assignment will be set as appropriate.   50%
Supplementary Exam RESIT  Resit on condoned (medical) grounds arising from non-completion of examination or coursework involves the completion of the missing component(s) for the full range of marks on dates set in the Supplementary Examination period.  50%

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this module students should be able to:

  • Demonstrate a critical appreciation of the relationships between history, memory, and place, and in particular the power relations and identity narratives inscribed in the historical landscape.
  • Critically discuss the complexities of our situated encounters with the past and evaluate a range of theoretical and applied approaches to the production of the historical landscape.
  • Demonstrate an ability to critically interrogate the taken-for-granted, common-sense meanings and messages inscribed into and drawn from particular sites of memory.
  • Demonstrate competencies in reading, writing, the analysis of texts and the historical landscape as well as practice in independent study.

Content

  1. Approaching memory, space and time (introduction to key debates)
  2. Memory and the Self: geographical perspectives on memory and subjectivity.
  3. Collaborative Memories: public memories, social memories, collective reminiscence, commemoration and performance.
  4. The politics of memory: spatializing history/spatializing identity
  5. Economies of memory: the heritage industry and past as commodity.
  6. Contesting Memories I: silence, forgetting, dissonant pasts, counter-memories and the politics of difference.
  7. Contesting Memories II: therapeutic landscapes, trauma, reconciliation and healing
  8. Materializing Memory: objects and technologies of remembrance
  9. Environmental Memories: contesting natures in the construction of national parks
  10. Haunting memories: ghosts, specters and places of enchantment

Brief description

This module offers students an opportunity to explore a broad spectrum of theoretical and applied debates that surround studies of memory and its links with the geographical. Drawing on a wide range of international examples, it examines the sites, technologies, politics and processes associated with various preservation and commemoration endeavours. Specifically, the ways in which groups and individuals struggle to gain authority to selectively represent and narrate their pasts will be discussed throughout alongside a concern with the practices of institutions in their efforts to reconcile problematic social memories. Case studies explore themes central to cultural geography including identity, subjectivity, embodiment, belonging, materiality, performance, scale, and the commodification of the past. The module develops substantive knowledge of topics introduced to students in The Geographies of Late Capitalism (GG25610), The Americas (GG26010) and Social and Cultural Geographies (GG25810). It also provides students with a range of critical approaches, concepts, vocabularies and ways-of-thinking about the "presentation of the past", the politics of heritage and the spatiality of memory. Throughout the module, student skills in analysis, written and oral communication will be developed through an engagement with both textual material and reflexive considerations of their own encounters with sites of memory.

Module Skills

Skills Type Skills details
Application of Number Not developed through this module
Communication Written communication skills will be developed and assessed through the examination as well as through the assessed essay. Oral communication skills will also be developed through group discussion in lectures.
Improving own Learning and Performance Students should implicitly develop their skills in this area through the organization of free-time reading and exam and essay preparation. Not explicitly developed through the module.
Information Technology Students will be directed to material from the internet that is relevant to lecture topics. They will also have the opportunity to develop IT skills by using the internet as a source for primary and secondary materials in preparation for the assessed essay.
Personal Development and Career planning Not explicitly developed through the module. The content of lectures and reading may indirectly encourage students to reflect on their own beliefs and views and may identify potential career paths for some.
Problem solving Problem solving will be indirectly addressed through some lecture content, essay assignments and class-based discussions but will not be explicitly developed in the module.
Research skills Students will be encouraged to develop independent research skills through collating material from library and internet sources, and through the analysis of primary sources. The opportunity that the module offers for practicing these skills will be especially useful for students wishing to conduct research or study at postgraduate level. Research skills will be assessed by means of the coursework essay.
Subject Specific Skills The module will enable students to practice subject-specific skills which they have developed in years one and two, including techniques for analyzing historical and cultural texts. Students will develop their analytical skills through class-based discussions and in their assessed essay and examination.
Team work Students will have the opportunity to develop team-work skills through group-based exercises and discussion in lectures.

Reading List

Recommended Text
Antze, P. and Lambeck, M. (eds) (1996) Tense Past: Cultural Essays in Trauma and Memory Routledge, London Primo search Casey, E (1987) Remembering: a phenomenological study Indiana UP Primo search Connerton, P. (1989) How Societies Remember Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Primo search Coser, L.A.. (1992) Maurice Halbwachs, On Collective Memory University of Chicago Press, London Primo search

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 6