HIST 355 Spring, 2009

History of European Popular Culture

Meets: Monday and Wednesday, 13:25-14:40

Classroom: VLIB 264

Instructor: Prof. Sue Peabody

Office: MMC 202D (360) 546-9647

Fax: (360) 546-9036

e-mail: peabody@vancouver.wsu.edu

Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays 3:00-4:00 pm, and by appt.

Course Description

Europe experienced profound economic, political, and cultural changes during the early modern period, 1400-1800. These have generally been studied (and taught) through focusing on Europe 's elites. In this class, we will be reading about and discussing Europe 's "common" people and the ways that they created and disseminated their own cultural beliefs and ideas. What is popular culture? How does it differ from elite culture? Does one impact the other? How do politics, technology, religion, gender and other social and ideological factors influence the creation, dissemination and reception of popular culture in Europe ?

The class focuses on how to read and analyze complex historical arguments. Students will read and review a common set of readings, discussing these in class, as well as composing more formal review essays. In addition, students will conduct original research about a chosen aspect of European popular culture. This research will be presented in a research paper.

Required Texts

These books are available through The Bookie. You might be able to find them on-line through www.powells.com, www.amazon.com or, used: www.alibris.com.

Darnton, Robert. The Great Cat Massacre. New York : Knopf, 1985. 0-394-72927-7. $14.95

Davis, Natalie Zemon. The Return of Martin Guerre. Cambridge : Harvard University Press, 1983. 0-674-76691-1 $16.95.

Ginzburg, Carlo. The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Baltimore : The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992. 0801843864. $19.95.

Le Roy Ladurie, Emmanuel. Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error. New York : W. W. Norton & Company, 2008. 0-8076-1598-6. $19.95 (Other editions are OK).

Muir, Edward. Ritual in Early Modern Europe ( New York : Cambridge University Press, 2005) 0-521-60240-8. $27.99

Grades

15% Attendance and Participation

40% Critical Thinking Questions

10% Preview & Bibliography

10% Primary Source Summary

25% Research Paper

Written Assignments

Critical Thinking Questions

These are 1–2 pp. double-spaced essays (submit these on paper in class) in response to specific questions posed in the “Assignments” section of the syllabus, below. When composing your essay, open with your own original thesis and offer evidence from the readings to support it. There are five questions listed; you are required to answer only four of these.

Due Dates

All written assignments are due in class the day listed in the syllabus. Late assignments will be marked down one letter grade for each day that they are late. E.g. An assignment due October 3 that receives a "B" but is submitted on October 4 will receive a final grade of "C." But see "Revisions," next.

Revisions

You may revise and resubmit all writing assignments except the final research paper. If the revised piece is an improvement on the original, the higher grade will replace the lower one. All such revisions are due NO LATER THAN the last day of classes.

Preliminary Bibliography

The purpose of this assignment is to get you started locating relevant works at appropriate university collections and thinking about a topic for your Research Paper (see below). The first thing you will need to do is to select a topic. You should pick some aspect of Early ModernEuropean popular culture, dating from approximately 1400 through 1830. Be sure that your topic focuses on the culture of the popular classes (e.g. peasants, urban laborers, poor, illiterate, sailors, etc.) and not elites. Do not go far into the nineteenth or twentieth centuries, as this course does not deal with the modern era.

You will probably start with a rather vague idea of your topic and it will change as you do research for your bibliography and primary source assignments. If you are having trouble focusing your topic or finding appropriate scholarly sources, please make an appointment to meet with me and I will try to help you. The following suggestions may help you as you begin:

1) Peter Burke, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe (on reserve at the Vancouver library circulation desk). This book is a great survey of the subject and contains many interesting topics, suggestions and bibliographical references.

2) Textbooks from this class: use their footnotes and bibliographies.

3) Keyword searches in the database: Historical Abstracts. Here are some suggestions to get you going (but remember that there are many other students in class, so the more unique your topic, the better):

• Witchcraft (narrow by a particular region or country)
• Popular Medicine, Healing
• Folklore, storytelling
• Popular rebellions, uprisings
• Games (especially as they relate to the social order)
• Carnival, festivals, popular celebrations
• Rituals (e.g. non-official religious or spiritual practices, guild initiations)
• Beliefs/practices around Food or Drink
• Culture of Work: confraternities, guilds, apprenticeship
• Crime and the law (how does the law suppress popular culture?)
• Impact of Literacy on Popular Culture (e.g. pulp novels)
• New technologies and popular culture (e.g. early photography, film)
• Popular forms of education (e.g. hedge schools)
• Commercialization, Consumer Culture
• Gender, Cross-dressing (e.g. women who become soldiers)

The bibliography should include two parts:

1. Description of your research topic. In a few sentences, describe your research, at least as you envision it at this point. What do you already know and what are you trying to find out?

2. A bibliographical list of books and articles on your topic.

Submit a typed bibliography in standard bibliographic form of at least tensecondary sources (scholarly books or articles).

For standard bibliographic form, see Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations or the Writing Center handout . WSU-V library has several copies of the Turabian book on permanent reserve.

For each bibliographical entry, please indicate which library (WSU-V, Pullman ’s Holland Library, PSU, etc.) or full-text database (JSTOR, Project Muse, History Cooperative, Historical Abstracts) holds the work. If more than a few works come from non-university libraries (e.g. Clark College , Vancouver Public Library) or popular periodicals, I may ask you to resubmit the bibliography. All sources must be peer-reviewed books or articles, not amateur internet sites. Wikipedia is not an appropriate source for college-level research.

Note that to complete the preliminary bibliography, it is not actually necessary at this stage to have obtained or read the books or articles themselves. You may extract most of the required information from the sources listed on the library webpage: http://dewey.vancouver.wsu.edu/library/subjdbs.cfm?SubjectCode=18. For European history, I particularly recommend that you begin with Historical Abstracts.

Research Tools:

Books: Historical Abstracts, Griffin , Summit

Articles: Historical Abstracts, JSTOR, ProQuest Direct, Project MUSE, Humanities Index, A&H Search, History Cooperative (and others – the list is expanding all the time)

Footnotes of other books and articles

(Check to see whether the item is obtainable through Griffin or Summit . If not, the WSUV library staff can probably get it for you from interlibrary loan. But be forewarned: Interlibrary Loan may take 3-4 weeks!)

Primary Source Summary

A primary source can be a text (e.g., letter, legal document, will), an image (e.g. painting, stained glass window), or artifact (toy, religious utensil) that sheds light on your popular culture topic. The original primary source must date from the time and place that you are researching (e.g 18 th century France ) ! However, you may use a more recent reprint or facsimile of an original item. Worldcat and Griffin/Summit are the best places to look for primary sources. Do not use items found at large on the internet without expressed advance permission from Prof. Peabody.

• Give a full bibliographical citation for your primary source in standard bibliographical form.
• Include a photocopy, print out, or other image of the document or artifact (for a longer text, a couple of pages will suffice).

In 1-2 double-spaced pages, discuss how this primary source sheds light on the subject that you are researching:

• What is its surface content? That is, describe the primary source’s organization, purpose, and content for someone who cannot see it (don’t rely on the attached photocopy to speak for itself).
• What does the primary source implicitly suggest about your specific topic in European popular culture? For example, what is its implied audience? What does it hint about attitudes, beliefs, living conditions and activities of the popular classes? What does it suggest about the social structure of its time?

Criteria for evaluation of the Primary Source Summary :

• Is this a primary source (i.e. dating from the time period under study)?
• Does it shed light on popular (as opposed to elite) culture?
• Did you include a correct bibliographical citation?
• Did you include a photocopy or print-out of the primary source?
• Did you describe the surface content of the document adequately?
• Is your discussion of how a historian might use this primary source as evidence of popular culture accurate, thorough, and insightful?
• Are the grammar, spelling, and organization of the essay correct?

Research Paper 2,000-2,500 words (about 8-10 pp.)

Based upon your research into your topic, please write a paper that argues a thesis, incorporating evidence from your primary source(s). You must cite at least five secondary sources, including at least 3 books. A hypothetical outline of your paper would go something like this:

I. Introduction (including a specific thesis that both describes and explains) (about 1 p.)

II. Historiography – how have previous historians tackled this subject? What approaches have they used? What kinds of primary sources have they used? What are the strengths and weaknesses of their approaches? (about 2 pp.)

III. What is known about the history of your popular culture topic? (about 3-4 pp.)

IV. What specific contribution to this knowledge can you make on the basis of your research with your primary source(s)? (about 3-4 pp.)

V. Conclusion—what is the significance of your research for the field of the history of popular culture? (about 1 p.)

This proposed outline is meant to be helpful to beginners. Do not feel like you have to follow it too rigorously, esp. Parts III & IV -- you may end up merging primary and secondary research, rather than concentrating on one or another in discrete sections.

Criteria for Evaluation of Research Papers

Positive:

• Does the paper have a clear thesis that specifically describes and explains some aspect of early modern European popular culture (1400-1800) in an original and thought-provoking way?
• Does the paper integrate research from reliable, peer-reviewed sources (articles and books)?
• Does the paper explore the European context or background to the subject in any depth?
• Does the paper cite sources for all information and interpretation, quoted and paraphrased?
• Does the paper critically analyze the subject, challenging other historians’ conclusions where appropriate?
• Is the paper accurate in facts and plausible (and self-conscious) in its speculations?
• Is the paper well written in terms of organization, sentence structure, punctuation and word choice?

Negative:

• Does the paper use unreliable sources (e.g. Wikipedia, commercial internet sites, older or uncritical scholarship) as the basis for information?
• Does the paper adopt a “heroic” celebratory rhetoric in lieu of critical analysis?

Class Policies

Attendance is required at all class meetings, even when no reading or writing assignments are listed on the syllabus. If you cannot attend a class due to illness or other personal emergency, you may obtain an “Excused Absence” by notifying the instructor prior to the class session. Leaving a message by voice mail is sufficient to obtain an Excused Absence. Please note that whether or not an absence is excused, you are responsible for learning what happened in class and mastering that material (e.g. obtaining notes from a reliable classmate).

Tardiness is rude. It disturbs the teacher and your classmates. Furthermore, it can severely affect your work in the class. I usually make important announcements at the beginning of class (e.g. changing an assignment). If you miss these announcements, there is no guarantee that I will repeat the information later. On occasion, tardiness is unavoidable. If you find yourself arriving late to class, please take your seat with a minimum of commotion. Three late arrivals constitute an unexcused absence. (Note: if your work schedule necessitates regular late arrivals, please clear this with me in advance).

Plagiarism and Cheating are serious offenses that may be penalized severely, up to and including failing the course. You are plagiarizing or cheating if you:

* present someone else’s words or ideas as your own, in writing or in speaking

* present ideas without citing the source

* paraphrase without crediting the source

* use direct quotes with no quotation marks

* use direct quotes without footnotes or other textual citation of the source

* present work in a group project that is not your own or the work of the group

* submit the same paper for credit in more than one course without discussing this option with the instructors involved

* submit material written by someone else as your own (this includes purchasing a term or research paper)

* submit a paper or assignment for which you have received so much help that it is no longer your own work

* do not do an equal part of the work on a group project

* copy someone else’s exam or graded homework

* purposefully allow another student to copy your work or submit work you have written as his/her own

Reasonable Accommodations are available for students who have a documented disability. Please notify the instructor during the first week of class of any accommodations needed for the course. Late notification may cause the requested accommodations to be unavailable. All accommodations must be approved through Disability Services Program Coordinator (VSSC Lower Level, 360-546-9138).

Hist 355: Reading and Writing Assignments