Course code:  BA-ERA-ISH-S-14

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. Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon – István M. Szijártó: What is microhistory? Theory and practice. Routledge: London – New York, 2013. 1-76.

11. 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.