This course is designed to give first year students a basic understanding of the nature of history as a branch of knowledge. It will examine the philosophical and epistemological issues that influenced the growth and expansion of the discipline of History. It will deal with such basic questions as \u2018What is history?\u2019 and also discuss various approaches to history. Especially, it exposes the students to the most updated knowledge on the subject of history so that they will be quite prepared to follow courses both on specific cases of histories in Sri Lanka and other parts of the world and more advanced courses on conceptual issues involving historical investigation.<\/p>\n
Learning Objectives:
\nThis course will introduce first year history students to basic concepts, debates and themes in writing and reading history in order to make students aware of the way in which the interpretation of the past has become an issue of contemporary political, social and cultural life.<\/p>\n
Learning Outcomes:
\nAt the end of this course, students should be able to<\/p>\n
\u2022 Understand the problems and issues involving historical enquiry
\n\u2022 Read critically the texts which describe the past against the backdrop of the questions
\nraised and concepts and theories introduced during the course
\n\u2022 Evaluate history writings critically<\/p>\n
Course Content:
\n1. History, past and society
\n\u2022 What is the difference between the past and \u2018History\u2019?
\n\u2022 Can the past be reconstructed?
\n\u2022 Why do we need knowledge about the past?
\n\u2022 Facts, sources and the reconstruction of the past
\n\u2022 Time and Space in history
\n\u2022 Society, ideology and history
\n2. Various approaches to the writing of history
\n\u2022 Pre-nineteenth century notions of history
\n\u2022 Nineteenth century notion of history
\n\u2022 Marxism and Historical Materialism
\n\u2022 New history and Annales School
\n\u2022 British and Indian historians of Post World War II era
\n\u2022 Subaltern Studies
\n\u2022 Linguistic Turn and Post modern approaches to history<\/p>\n
3. Modern Sri Lankan Historiography
\n\u2022 Evolution of Modern Sri Lankan Historiography
\n\u2022 Colonial administration and investigating the past
\n\u2022 Discovery of Pali chronicles
\n\u2022 Ideological needs of the Indigenous elite
\n\u2022 Institutionalisation of the Modern Sri Lankan Historiography
\n\u2022 Beginning of Modern history writing
\n\u2022 History of Sri Lanka as a popular discourse<\/p>\n
Assessment:
\nMidterm Test 20%
\nMidterm Assignment 20%
\nFinal Exam 60%<\/p>\n
Recommended Readings:<\/p>\n
ld\u00be” B’ t\u00c9’ ^1973& b;sydih hkq l=ulao@” fld\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This course is designed to give first year students a basic understanding of the nature of history as a branch of knowledge. It will examine the philosophical and epistemological issues that influenced the growth and expansion of the discipline of History. It will deal with such basic questions as \u2018What is history?\u2019 and also discuss various approaches to history. Especially, it exposes the students to the most updated knowledge on the subject of history so that they will be quite prepared to follow courses both on specific cases of histories in Sri Lanka and other parts of the world and more advanced courses on conceptual issues involving historical investigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arts.cmb.ac.lk\/history\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arts.cmb.ac.lk\/history\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arts.cmb.ac.lk\/history\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arts.cmb.ac.lk\/history\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arts.cmb.ac.lk\/history\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/arts.cmb.ac.lk\/history\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45,"href":"https:\/\/arts.cmb.ac.lk\/history\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39\/revisions\/45"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arts.cmb.ac.lk\/history\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arts.cmb.ac.lk\/history\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arts.cmb.ac.lk\/history\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}