Unit information: Voices of the People (Level H Lecture Response) in 2017/18

Unit name	Voices of the People (Level H Lecture Response)
Unit code	HIST30086
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Dr. Will Pooley
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of History (Historical Studies)
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

Speech is central to everyday life, yet fleeting in the historical record. All societies have oral cultures, but how can historians find out about them? Before the invention of writing, and sound and video recording, historians depend on fragmentary records of the voices of the people.

This unit invites students to think about the meanings and functions of storytelling, singing, and other ways of speaking in examples from the ancient world to the twenty-first century. Why and how were some words remembered? How important was the oral tradition at different times in history? How do historians treat speech differently to written text? Should historians seek ‘authentic’ speech, and how do they decide what is ‘fake’?

The unit will look at examples from more recent oral history, such as the Mass Observation project in the UK and the National Writers' Project in the US, as well as older examples of oral cultures, such as fairy tales in early-modern Europe, and ancient epics.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. Analyse how oral culture has functioned in societies over time
2. Identify key turning points in the relationship between oral culture and society
3. Understand the interaction between oral culture and other forms of communication
4. Critically analyse historians’ approaches to recovering the voices of a range of historical actors

Teaching Information

1 x two-hour interactive lecture weekly

Assessment Information

One 3000 word summative essay (50%). [ILOs 1-4] and one two hour-exam (50%). [ILOs 1-4]

Reading and References

Albert Lord, The Singer of Tales (1960).

Robert Perks & Alistair Thomson (eds), The Oral History Reader, 2nd edition (2006).

Donald Ritchie (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Oral History (2011).

James C. Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts (1990).

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’ in Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg (eds) Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture (1988).

Paul Thompson, The Voice of the Past: Oral History (1988).