The course intends to give an overview of the most important currents of writing history in the last decades. The history of mentalities and historical anthropology, both products of the 1970s, will be considered, as will the somewhat more recent trends of microhistory and new cultural history. Each of these genres of history will be presented through outstanding examples. In several cases, we shall select the books for the final reading list together at the first class.
Course homepage: www.szijarto.elte.hu/AngolPhd2026tavasz.htm
Course content
1. 9 February 2026: Introduction
2. 16 February 2026: History of mentalities
3. 23 February 2026: Historical anthropology I.
4. 2 March 2026: Historical anthropology II.
5. 9 March 2026: Orientalism and post-colonial history I.
6. 16 March 2026: Orientalism and post-colonial history II.
7. 13 April 2026: Microstoria I.
8. 20 April 2026: Microstoria II.
9. 27 April 2026: Microhistory today I.
10. 4 May 2026: Microhistory today II.
11. 11 May 2026: New cultural history I.
12. 18 May 2026: New cultural history II.
At the end of the course, the learner will be able to understand the historical approaches discussed. The further learning outcomes of the course are an increased alertness to agency in history, and attention to the responsibility of historical actors.
Attendance of each class is mandatory. Up to two unexcused absences will be tolerated before the final grade is affected. For missed classes, compulsory readings should be made up by 18 May 2025 at the latest in the form of an oral examination. However, there are no prerequisites and no essay is to be submitted, in consideration of the large amount of the material to be read from one class to the other.
Prescribed reading
2. Aron Gurevich: Categories of Medieval Culture. Routledge & Kegan Paul: London, 1985. Part I: Ideas of Space and Time in the Middle Ages AND Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie: Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error. Scolar Press: London, 1978. Part I, Chapters 1-7.
3. Marshall Sahlins: Islands of History. University of Chicago Press: Chicago, 1985. Chapter 2: Captain James Cook: The Dying God AND Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie: Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error. Scolar Press: London, 1978. Part II, Chapters 8-14.
4. Robert Darnton: The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History. Basic Books: New York, 1984. 75-106, Chapter 2: Workers’ Revolt: The Great Cat Massacre of the Rue Saint-Séverin AND Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie: Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error. Scolar Press: London, 1978. Part II, Chapters 15-21.
5. Natalie Zemon Davis: Trickster Travels. A Sixteenth-Century Muslim Between Worlds. Hill and Wang: New York, 2006. OR Omri Paz: Who Killed Panayot? Reforming Ottoman Legal Culture in the 19th century. Routledge: London – New York, 2021.
6. Robert A. Rosenstone: Mirror in the Shrine. American Encounters with Meiji Japan. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA, 1988. OR Randy Sparks: The Two Princes of Calabar. An Eighteenth-Century Atlantic Odyssey. Harvard University Press: Cambridge MA – London, 2004.
7. Carlo Ginzburg: The Cheese and the Worms. The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller. London and Henley: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1980. OR Giovanni Levi: Inheriting Power: The Story of an Exorcist. University of Chicago Press: Chicago, 1988.
8. Natalie Zemon Davis: The Return of Martin Guerre. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA, 1983.
9. Guido Ruggiero: Love and Sex in the Time of Plague. A Decameron Renaissance. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA – London, 2021. 1-60: Introduction and Chapter 1: Listening to the Decameron: An Introduction; Laughter. Imagining Love, Lust and Virtù in the Rinascimento OR Thomas
Seminars. Participants are required to read the relevant literature and take actively part in the discussion in class.
Transcript of records