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SoSe 18: Introduction to Global Conceptual History

Margrit Pernau

Kommentar

This master seminar provides an introduction to the intersection between conceptual history and memory studies. Through a thorough theoretical exchange on the recent historiography in both fields, analysis of cases studies and the collective reading of sources, students are invited to rethink the discipline anew, to clear the way for a new history of concepts, where memory adds a deeper layer to the multiplicity of meanings in different communities and societies.

Independently from the now famous (or infamous) linguistic turn, historians of concepts have been documenting the evolution of language, the semantic changes and the shifts in sociological discourses. More recently, a new emerging “material turn” has shown historians that the history of concepts can go beyond the analysis of words and the written; that all senses play an important role in the fabric of interpersonal exchanges. Indeed, if concepts like “democracy” and “freedom” have a history, influence practices and directly or indirectly affect the body; the flesh, bare life and the senses also have an influence on the shape a given concept takes. However, the construction of old and new concepts connected to a visual symbol, the relation between the taste of a particular food to an emotion, and finally the commemoration of an event through dance are all new bridges between human experiences, bodily practices and performances that should interest historians, especially global historians. Trying to add memory studies to the equation is the next logical step to this endeavour, a project we invite the students to approach with us. Schließen