Rhodes University History Undergraduate Course 2

History 2

History Second-Level Courses

The second-year programme comprises two exciting and diverse courses that introduce students to new ways of understanding the past, and deepen their knowledge and understanding of history.

History 201: Representing the 20th Century

The course is concerned with how certain key events of the 20th Century have been represented and how they have come to be remembered. Although memory may be shaped by historical representations, it exists apart from history. So we shall explore if and how representations have shaped cultural memory. We shall look specifically at literary (fiction and non-fiction), visual (film, television, art, cartoons) and musical representations of World War I, the Russian Revolution, the Great Depression, World War II (including the Holocaust), and the Vietnam War. We will also examine how the public engages with the past represented in memorials, museum exhibits and other sites of memory.

History 202: Themes in Southern African History

This course will be built around certain themes in the history of southern Africa – it will not be a blow-by-blow, narrative-type survey of southern African history. Particular attention will be given to themes such as Cape slavery, 19th century conflict, economic inequality, land dispossession, and representations of the ‘Frontier’. We will also examine the history of the liberation struggle, the collapse of apartheid, the truth and reconciliation commission, and the record of the post-apartheid government.