Representations of Historical Injustice in Media

Timetable

The lecture series is planned for winter semester 2023/24 – october-christmas break (17th of october-21st of december 2023) with two slots a week:
Tuesday 17.30-1930pm, Thursday 17.30-19.30pm.

14 meetings in total

Hosted by 

KIT - Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Module aim (aims)

The course deals with the problem of historical injustice in European media. The aim of this course is to make students analyze various case-studies and learn from international perspectives. During the course students will read texts concerning examples from Greece, Germany and Poland amongst others. Skills aquired during the course will be interdisciplinary and will help students to overcome divisions between European nations.

Pre-requisites in terms of knowledge, skills and social competences (where relevant)

The course language will be English.

Syllabus

1. Introduction to historical injustice
2. General introduction to historical memory part 1
3. General introduction to historical memory part 2
4. Historical Injustice overview 1
5. Historical Injustice 2
6. Convergence of history and present
7. Visual semiotics and iconology
8. Greek Case study 1
9. German Case study 1
10. Greek Case study 2
11. Polish Case study 1
12. German Case study 2
13. Polish Case study 2
14. Closing session

 

 

 

As a joint lecture series within EPICUR, lecturers from several partner universities will
contribute. The several lectures will deal with Representations of Historical Injustice in
Media.
Representations of history may serve a lot of different purposes. As a way of divulgation of
knowledge produced by historical research they may be seen as a form of science
communication. But they have also played a major role in nation building and still do in the
formation of collective ‘identities’ of any kind. Therefore they are prone to ideological
constructions and superpositions, possibly leading up to territorial claims and justification of
aggression. And, last but not least, they help to draw attention to media products and
produce aesthetic pleasure with a seemingly growing audience interested in getting to know
more about important historical developments in an entertaining way.
Particularly interesting and problematic in this context are the dark sides of history, marked
by events of war, violation of human rights or even genocide, and especially cases of
historical injustice. Together with the acknowledgement of a fact as historical injustice
comes the aspect of responsibility which stretches far beyond the actual period in which the
fact occurred. A lot of different questions arise: Who can be held responsible – only real
persons for their deeds of injustice or also institutions backing their actions, facilitators of
these deeds, bystanders who did not act to prevent these acts to happen, etc.? How have
these possible agents of historical injustice reacted to what has happened afterwards - did
they show remorse, did they try to get in contact to the victims and offer recompensation?
How have these agents been treated by their own or the international community – in a
range from condemnation to glorification? And, in the long run probably most important, in
which way has historical injustice been remembered, privately and publicly, superficially or
thoroughly, separately between the sides of the agents and the victims or together, or on
one or both of these sides perhaps not at all? And what types of historical development can
be observed with regard to all of these questions?

 

 

 

The assesments:

 

EPICUR protocol: compulsory presence in online lectures
Preparation: Read a paper / an article recommended by each lecturer information shared
in advance via platform
Records:
Academic recognition / 4 ECTS
Write an essay (5 pages) on one of the lecture topics or discussion
questions that have been raised during student meetings

Reading list