CULTURAL HISTORY

The course of Cultural History is characterizing of several Master's Degrees in Humanities. The objective of the course is to provide advanced knowledge in historiographic methodologies.

The students will acquire:
- an advanced knowledge of contemporary historiographical debate;
- the ability to debate about the historical methods;
- the ability to read critically historiographical literature in different European languages;
- the ability to produce a paper on historiographical issues and to respond to critical objections.

Students must have a basic historical background and curiosity towards historical readings.

What is cultural history? In recent decades cultural history has contributed to the renewal of historiographical interests. Situated at the crossroads of different fields (social history, media studies, art history, literary criticism, history of science, etc.), cultural history offers new perspectives with which to approach the study of the development of our society.
The course consists of two parts closely intertwined. The first part is methodological and takes into consideration the development of historical-cultural interests.
The second tends to be monographic and proposes a case study on a specific theme. This year's themes will be inspired by the reading of Carlo Ginzburg's book, 'Occhiacci di legno. Dieci riflessioni sulla distanza' (Quodlibet 2019).

Peter Burke, La storia culturale, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2009.
Lynn Hunt, La storia culturale nell'eta globale, Pisa, ETS, 2010
Lynn Hunt, The new cultural history, University of California Press, 1989
La storia culturale: una svolta nella storiografia mondiale?, a cura di Ph. Porrier, ed. italiana a c. di A. Arcangeli, Verona, Quiedit, 2010.
Roger Chartier, La nouvelle histoire culturelle existe-t-elle ?http://ccrh.revues.org/291

Other readings will be assigned during the course.

The exam consists in writing a paper of about 20.000 characters on the course topics and in its discussion.

The course is seminar-based and requires the active participation of students.
Part of the materials used in the lessons will be provided through the moodle platform

Italian

written and oral