HI3025 World War II, France and the Historians
Module Coordinator: Professor John Horne
Duration:
Michaelmas term
Contact hours: 2 hours per week
Weighting: 5 ECTS
Assessment: 100% essay
The Second World War marked the greatest crisis in 20th century French history. Defeat and occupation, collaboration and resistance, survival and compromise were some of the central categories of experience during those years. The legacy of the war was understandably divisive, so that the historiography of the subject since 1945 has been written against a changing backdrop of political conflict, official commemoration, and the uncomfortable emergence of repressed memories. This makes the topic an ideal one for exploring the relationship of professional history-writing with political and ideological history-making and with questions of memory and commemoration. How independent historians are of such processes, and whether they may be inspired or compromised by them, will be key issues. Much of the historical writing has been in English or has been translated, so that no knowledge of French is required for this module.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module students should be able:
- Identify the main features of the history of World War Two in France
- Explain the different ways in which professional historians have approached the subject since 1945 and why such differences have come about
- Analyze the principal debates between different schools of historical thought on France in World War Two
- Reflect on the public nature and applications of history as shown through official and unofficial memory, the refusal or acceptance by the state for past events, the impact of social groups lobbying for recognition of the past in new ways
- Discuss the role of the law and trials as instruments for confronting history
- Use film and fiction as a means of interpreting the past
- Supply an individual synthesis based on critical reading of the secondary literature and the historical or artistic works dealing with France and World War Two
- Write essays and make oral presentations defending such a synthesis.