Convener: Associate Professor S Field

Course entry requirements: At least two courses at 1000-level and two courses at 2000-level in historical, cultural studies or social science offered by the Faculty of Humanities, or by permission of the Head of Department.

The ways in which people remember, forget and silence their past are indispensable to how they construct and sustain their identities. South African and international historical literature will be used to develop comparative case studies on trauma and memory in post-authoritarian countries such as South Africa, Rwanda and post-war Germany. A central theme linking these diverse case studies is the impact of traumatic experiences on the making of life, community and national histories, and the significance of reconciliatory processes such as the TRC and gacaca. Through these case studies, students will have the opportunity to explore specific memory/identity themes such as self, community, gender, culture and politics. The course will also help students to interpret examples of remembrance that are represented through writing, oral histories, films, cartoons, spaces, archives and memorialisation.