Course title: The comparative
microhistory of Hungary in the eighteenth century
Time: Wednesday, 14.00-15.30
Location: 6-8
Múzeum krt., 268.
szijarto.istvan@btk.elte.hu
Course homepage: www.szijarto.elte.hu/Comparative2024.htm
Maximum number of students admitted: 10
Educational
objectives
The
course will present the microhistory of 18th-century Hungary in a comparison
with microhistorical works about medieval and early modern Europe, from the
classics to the latest books. These will help the participants of the course
both to understand the 18th-century history of Hungary and to have a good
overview of the theory and practice of microhistory.
Course
content
1. 11
September 2024: Introduction
2. 18
September 2024: Army, society, and a love for details
3. 25
September 2024: Panna Rózsa’s wonderings
4. 2
October 2024: ’Let them flog you!
5. 9
October 2024: ’The return of Panna Rózsa
6. 16
October 2024: The miller’s case
7. 6
November 2024: Army and markets in Hungary
8. 13
November 2024: Enlightenment in Tiszabercel I.
9. 20
November 2024: Enlightenment in Tiszabercel II.
10. 27
November 2024: Historiography
11. 4
December 2024: Theories
12. 11
December 2024: Summary
Course requirements
As a minimum, two thirds of the courses are to be attended. For each class, two types of texts are to be read: first: a book in full or a chapter or two, second: a single chapter from a manuscript that is about Hungary in the eighteenth century. These two types of texts will be discussed first in themselves, then in a comparative perspective. For missed classes, readings should be made up by 20 December 2024 the latest. No essay is to be submitted.
Prescribed reading
2. Thomas V. Cohen: Roman Tales: A Reader's Guide to the Art of
Microhistory. Routledge: London –
New York, 2019. 16-39, 163-188. (Chapter 2: If a summer’s eve a traveller, or
two… and Chapter 8: Nicolina runs away)
3. Guðný
Hallgrímsdóttir: A Tale of a Fool? A Microhistory of an 18th-Century Peasant
Woman. Routledge: London – New York, 2019.
4. Tyge
Krogh: The great nightman conspiracy. A tale of the 18th century’s
dishonourable underworld. Routledge: London – New York, 2019.
5. Gene Brucker: Giovanni and
Lusanna: Love and Marriage
in Renaissance Florence. University of California Press: Berkeley - Los Angeles, 1986.
6. Carlo
Ginzburg: The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller. The Johns Hopkins University Press:
Baltimore, 1980.
7. Thomas V. Cohen: Roman Tales: A Reader's Guide to the Art of
Microhistory. Routledge: London –
New York, 2019. 142-162, 189-199. (Chapter 7: Black velvet’s odd adventure and
Chapter 9: A boy steals gold)
8. Giovanni Levi: Inheriting Power: The Story of an Exorcist.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988.
9. Sarah Maza: Private Lives and Public Affairs. The Causes Célebrès of Prerevolutionary France. University of California Press: Berkeley – Los Angeles – London, 1993. 112–167. (Chapter 3: Private Lives and Public Affairs: Upper-Class Scandal, 1774–1778)
10. R.
Po-Chia Hsia: Trent 1475. Stories of a Ritual Murder Trial. Yale
University Press: New Haven and London, 1992.
11. Robert A. Rosenstone: Mirror in the Shrine. American Encounters
with Meiji Japan. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Massachusetts –
London, England, 1988. To be read: Prologue, Before, Chapters 1, 4, 7, 10, 13,
After OR Prologue, Before, Chapters 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, After OR Prologue, Before,
Chapters 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, After OR the complete book
12. Optional reading: Sigurður
Gylfi Magnússon – István M. Szijártó: What is
microhistory? Theory and practice. Routledge: London – New York, 2013. 1-76.; István M. Szijártó: Probing the limits of
microhistory. Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 47 (2017) 1:
193–198; idem: The paths of microhistory. Quaderni storici 53 (2018)
917–928; idem: Arguments for Microhistory 2.0. In: Hans
Renders – David Veltman (eds): Fear of Theory. Towards a New Theoretical
Justification of Biography. Leiden–Boston, 2021. 211–227.