Memory, Truth, and Justice,

or,

How Post-Dictatorial Democracies

Come to Terms with their Past

l

An Interdisciplinary Minicourse on

Germany, Spain, Argentina, Chile, South Africa, Yugoslavia, Russia, and Iraq

 

 

March 7-19, 2005

HISP 332 1 hr SS (CR/NE)

* Six Lectures by Oberlin Faculty

* Guest Lectures by Michael P. Scharf (Case Western) and Chuck Sudetic (journalist & expert on Yugoslavia)

* Six Films

* One Round Table Discussion

 

Lectures: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 7-8:15pm

Film screenings: TBA

Click here for a Detailed Schedule

The general purpose of the course is to give an overview of the different ways in which societies across the globe have attempted to make transitions from dictatorship to democracy, and give a sense of the many complex issues involved in these transitions. General aspects covered in the course include: the role of international justice (judges, courts, tribunals); the formation and work of truth commissions; the notions of truth and reconciliation or punishment in relation with the ethics of collective memory; and the role of cultural production (literature, art, film) in coming to terms with a repressive past.

In order to pass this course, students will have to attend all the lectures and screenings, do the assigned readings (available on Blackboard), and write a 5-7 page paper.

For information contact Sebastiaan Faber sfaber@oberlin.edu, x58189