Deadline: Wednesday 7 May 2025

The final essay for History & Textuality invites you to use the ideas that you’ve encountered throughout the syllabus to think in new ways about the relationship between history and literature, and the types of knowledge of the past that texts can produce. It is not a test of your knowledge of the readings you’ve completed, but rather a chance to demonstrate your understanding of them and your ability to use them to develop your own perspectives on the key themes of the module.

To prepare for this, you will find it useful to think about connections, affinities, tensions and contradictions between the different approaches and ideas that you’ve encountered across the module. There are no limitations, or even fixed expectations, as to the texts that will be discussed in answering any particular questions (except where such limitations or expectations are specified in a question itself); nor as to the way in which you combine the readings to support your arguments: fresh combinations of core and ‘secondary’ texts will help you to generate your own points of view. We will practice this in the seminars at the end of the module. Most importantly, note that:

1. you are more likely to be successful in this essay by engaging with a small number of carefully-chosen texts - maybe only one or two - in some depth. Treating a large field of texts briefly and superficially probably won't enable you to demonstrate the interpretative and analytical sophistication that is rewarded at the upper end of the mark scheme
2. all essays are expected to have a clear independent thesis - in relation to which you may find it helpful to review the guidance offered by the Harvard College Writing Center here.

 

Questions

Answer ONE of the following questions:

• Is some idea of the 'reality' of the past ultimately indispensable for historians?
• Archives are no longer the most important source of historical knowledge. Discuss.
• Can we write history without silences?
• Historical novels present an essentially unhistorical view of the past. Discuss.
• 'History remains first and foremost an encounter with death' (Arlette Farge). What does this statement suggest about history and the role of the historian?
• Historians are always bound by their own context, but works of literature always escape theirs. Discuss.
• 'Time sticks to [the historian's] thought like soil to the gardener's spade' (Fernand Braudel). Which of the different conceptions of time that we've studied do you find most fruitful for historical inquiry, and why?
• What is the most important contribution of queer theory to the study and understanding of the past?
• Do you agree with Pierre Nora that history and memory are fundamentally opposed in contemporary societies?
• Do human beings make history, or are they made by it?
• Authorial intent is irrelevant to the interpretation of literary texts, but essential to our understanding of historical ones. Discuss.
• Compare and contrast the conception of history in ANY TWO of the core texts for this module (A Tale of Two Cities; Frankenstein (1818 text); Fun Home; and The Rings of Saturn).

 

Length: 2,000 words (excluding references)

Format: 12-point, double-spaced Times New Roman

Paragraphs: Use standard-length indents (rather than line breaks) for paragraph breaks. Eliminate the extra spacing that Microsoft Word automatically inserts by going to 'Format', then 'Paragraph'. Tick the 'Don't add space between paragraphs' box.

Student ID#: At the top of the page and in document name, e.g. 1771883 - Summative Assignment 1.docx. Do not include your name.