Goal this week, plus
February 5, 2014
Having my first born son, a preemie, in the neonatal intensive care unit can be thoroughly distracting to academics, (don’t get me wrong, I would chop off my head for this little guy (he’s almost 5lbs!)) but my goal for this coming week is to manage my time more closely. Do the readings on Thursday, the day right after class so that the lesson is still fresh on mind and then I will be able to post my blogs by Friday. That way I have one less thing to try to get to in between hospital visits and work and other classes etc.
From the Cronon piece on “Getting Ready to do History”
Truths about historians:
- seek different perspectives
- know their sources.
- become immersed in the details of a specific period, not the big picture
- hate generalizations
- it’s about people
- look for documents or fragments thereof
- what have I got? What haven’t I got?
- they like complex answers
- different point of view
- storytelling/narrative
When reading historical documents –
- sourcing
- contextualize
- close reading
- using background knowledge
- reading the silences
- corroborating
I can relate most closely with the concept of reading the silences. In theatrical training we are taught to read between the lines; what is the underlying meaning behind the text? The subtext. What is being said by not being said? An example from Hamlet:
When asked by his mother Queen Gertrude, “Have you forgotten me?”
HAMLET
No, by the rood, not so: You are the queen, your husband’s brother’s wife; And–would it were not so!–you are my mother.Hamlet’s subtext is, “you married my uncle, who killed my father; yes I’m sure I remember you”.
An historian reading not only what is written but what is not written will surely find more meaning than in the text alone.