THE WRITING OF HISTORY (Michel de Certeau)
This article discusses the challenges of conducting historical research in order to find meaning. Certeau talks about the problems with making meaning of religion by historical methods, pointing out that theology is “religious fact, and it is a fact of doctrine” (19). Overall, this article discusses the challenges of historical research. Approaching a historical event or belief from a different viewpoint can yield different results. When we seek to understand a historical event, we myst take into account the object of study but also the time/culture in which it occurred (34).
WORKING IN THE ARCHIVES (Various)
This set of articles deals with the practical nature of conducting archival work.
The first article talks about hidden versus digital archives. Ramsey discusses the different types of archives — processes and accessible, hidden, and digital. Hidden collections are those which have not been processed due to funding or staff issues. Processing can be delayed for months or longer. Knowing what collections your institution has is important so that you can let archivists know you are interested in holdings — perhaps this could fast track the processing of the collection you are interested in — but perhaps not. Priority is given to collections that attract interest. Digital archives digitize items in the collection which makes them easily accessible to more people. Of course, this can be seen as a less intimate interaction with archival material. However, it keeps them preserved.
Tirabassi’s article discusses the technical aspects of archival work. She narrates what it is like to be in an archive — interesting for me, as someone who’s never been in an archive. She talks about considerations and challenges of archival work, including the necessity of out-of-the-box thinking required at times to get the information needed for a research project. Items are categorized and defined by an archivist. They cannot anticipate every interest and need of each researcher who might come in and use the collection. She defines four principles she has developed for archival work: principle of selectivity, cross referencing, categorization, and closure. She stresses that there comes a time when you have to walk away in order to actually write up your research; although you will never feel done, there is always another document to read or another lead to follow.
Ritter’s article talks about a gendered nature of her archival work. She was looking at remedial courses of English at Yale in the early 20th century. This involved men teaching boys and it is obvious the whole thing occurs within a masculine space, no girls allowed. She even wonders if she was the only woman to read the documents in the collection. Challenges she faced initially involved trying to locate the information she wanted about the remedial classes. At the time, they weren’t called remedial classes, so she had to be creative and investigative to find the documents she wanted. For me, the shocking part was how the English program was so defined by gender. She talks about a picture she found and how those men made the English department. Teaching at girls’ schools was seen as a step down in their career.
POETIC LICENCE AND THE INCARNATION OF HISTORY (Atom Egoyan)
This article discusses the expectation of historical fact in historical movies. James Cameron’s Titanic is the main communicator of information about the shipwreck for an entire generation of people (my generation; the only time we ever talked about the Titanic in school was in relation to Cameron’s film. It was certainly not a part of the curriculum). People learn about wars via war movies (Saving Private Ryan, for example) or understand what happened in the Holocaust via Schindler’s List. Egoyan made a film (Ararat) about the Armenian genocide. “In making Ararat, I wanted to show how the truth is not to be found in the epic scenes of deportation and massacre, but in the intimate moments shared by individuals” (18). Egoyan’s film is surrounded by a culture of denial that the genocide even took place; it was meant to shed light on a horror that was systematically covered up.
A SHORT GUIDE TO WRITING ABOUT HISTORY (Richard Marius & Melvin E. Page)
This book provides an overview of how to conduct historical research. They give tips about choosing a topic and narrowing it, caution against common errors (do not plagiarize), and provide excellent writing advice. I particularly found the advice about linking the first and last paragraph of your paper together helpful; introductions and conclusions are the most difficult parts of writing a paper for me, so this practice might help me out greatly.