CA950             Media History and Historiography Spring 2002

 

Wednesday 1:00-3:30

Prof. Michele Hilmes

Media and Cultural Studies

mhilmes@facstaff.wisc.edu  262-2547

Office hours:  Tues. and Thurs. 11-12, and by appointment

 

What is this thing called “history?”  What is its relationship to the past, and on what evidence can we possibly claim to have knowledge of it?  What assumptions, selections, and omissions go into the constructing of theoretical narratives – and how are power, memory, truth claims, and authority asserted? 

Can the past be silenced, and if so what is at stake?  Why is the distinction between “truth” and “fiction” such a vital one to make, and why is it so adamantly contested?

 

These are some of the questions we’ll address in this seminar.  First reading some key works of historical theory – Foucault’s Archaeology of Knowledge and The Discourse on Language, selections from DeCerteau’s The Writing of History, Michel Rolph Trouillot’s Silencing the Past, and selections from Hayden White – we’ll proceed to an examination of some key and some new texts in media history.

 

We’ll ask questions of these texts such as: what is history, as this text defines it?  How is it positioned in relation to inherited constructions: as revisionist or marginal history? as an extension of previous historiography?  What is the nature of the evidence being employed, and what are the implications of these selections for the type of history that results?  What narrative strategies does the author deploy?  How can we account for the complex role of media texts and reception in critical cultural historiography, and how do these considerations intersect with the broader cultural context?

 

Students will also be introduced to the practice of archival research through a joint research project making use of the Wisconsin State Historical Society archives.  An individual research paper, employing primary sources, will be required.  In addition, student presentation and discussion of readings will be required.

 

Evaluation:        Attendance and participation      25%

                        In-class presentations                    20%

                        Final paper                                   55%

 

 

1/23                 Intro:  Czitrom, “The Rise of Empirical Media Study,” Spigel, “From

Domestic Space to Outer Space”,  McChesney, “Conflict Not Consensus”

 

1/30                 Foucault Archaeology of Knowledge Part I, II, III

 

2/6                   Archaeology of Knowledge Part IV, Discourse on Language

                        Guest:  Peter Gottlieb, State Archivist

 

2/13                 DeCerteau, The Writing of History part I; White, The Content of the Form chapters 3 and 5

 

2/20                 Introduction to archival research

 

2/27                 Trouillot, Silencing the Past

 

3/6                   Levine, Highbrow/Lowbrow

 

3/13                 Allen, Horrible Prettiness

 

3/20                 Hilmes, Radio Voices

 

3/27              Spring Break

 

4/3                   Hayes, Radio Nation   Paper proposals due

 

4/10                 Bodrogkhozy, Groove Tube

 

4/17                 Ward, Just My Soul Responding

 

4/24                 Student presentations

 

5/1                   Student presentations

 

5/8       No class

 

Papers due May 14, by 4:30 pm