Film in history/history in film

Abstract

This is a module framework. It can be viewed online or downloaded as a zip file.

As taught in Autumn Semester 2009

This module explores the inter-relations and interactions of film and history in 20th century Europe and the United States (with a few classic films from elsewhere). It considers how films have appropriated past events as their core subject matter or setting, for purposes of nostalgic entertainment or didactic drama, for social commentary, philosophical enquiry or political protest and examines how historical films have shaped popular knowledge and popular cultures of history, how they have contributed to forming or reforming collective memories and how, at times, they have catalysed social or political change.

This module raises challenging questions about the constitution and role of public and private memories, about the social meaning and significance of history, about the nature of historical evidence and historical representation and, ultimately, about the construction and possibility of historical ‘truth’.

Suitable for: undergraduate level three students

Dr Nick Baron, School of History.

Dr Nick Baron is an Associate Professor in History at the University of Nottingham. After taking a BA in modern history and modern languages at Oxford, he turned his attention eastwards, receiving an MPhil in Russian and East European Studies, also from Oxford, and then a PhD in Soviet history from Birmingham. He then held a four-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Manchester before taking up a position at Nottingham in 2004. His research area is twentieth century Russian and East European history and historical geography, and he has special interests in the history of population displacement and in spatial experience, representation and practice. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society–Institute of British Geographers.