Currently, I should be composing a 10-page lecture/paper about the Annales School. I would prefer not to, not because I don't like the Annales School (I do, actually, quite a lot), but just because, papers, really? I have an outline. Shouldn't that be enough? It's a very creative outline, as well. If you know anything about the Annales School (or the work of Fernand Braudel) you'll appreciate this.
The Annales ‘School’
I. The Role of the Environment: La longue durée
a. The Climate of Historical Study in
b. The Conditions Which Made the Formation of The Annales ‘School’ Possible
c. The Historical and Political Climate in
II. Collective Destinies and General Trends: La Conjoncture
a. Ideas of the Annales ‘school’ at its inception
b. Later innovations of the Annales ‘school’
c. Some general trends of the Annales in the 1960s and 1970s
III. Events, Politics, and People: L’histoire événementielle
a. Marc Bloch, The Royal Touch, and l’histoire de mentalités
b. Fernand Braudel, The Mediterranean, and his “longue durée” with the Annales, the sixième section, and the writing of history
If you don't know anything about the Annales School, and if you have any interest in history, historiography, French historical methods, etc. I recommend looking them up. It's very interesting! Much better than "boring, dry history." Although, I must warn you, they aren't very into "events" as such, though they recognize that events have the most human interest. Rather, Braudel likes the "longue durée" of geographical time, and slower moving processes, which are the structures upon which events ride. Events are simply "foam on the sea of history" and to understand history we must "dive beneath the waves," according to Braudel. Marc Bloch deals with history a bit differently, relying alot on mentalités, or the historical pyschology (though that's not an exactly accurate description). Lucien Febvre is another historian you absolutely must look up in regards to the Annales school, but my assignment doesn't specifically tell me to mention him, and since I have limited space he's short-shrifted in my lecture.Ahem...right anyways...
Classes ended Friday, so now it's finals time! I have three papers due Thursday (one of them is this Annales school thing) and then a final in Literary and Cultural Studies. Part of me is desperately dying to finish up here and be home for the holidays, getting ready for England. Another part of me doesn't want these next few days to end, because that means I won't be back here until next August. Unlike some people, I like it here. And I'm going to miss it-- well, mostly the people (certainly NOT the workload). Sigh.
But England soon! Both exciting and scary... Just have to finish two more papers, work on some footnotes, and take a final!
1 comment:
I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT SCHOOL IS ALMOST OVER... ugh.
in other news i found out i only have classes three days a week in South Africa!
Post a Comment