HENA03682U Europaprofilen/CEMES: "1968" in Europe

Few historical moments engage the modern imagination as what is perceived as “1968”.  From Paris to Prague, Berkeley to Saigon, and from London to Copenhagen, a dramatic range of political and cultural revolts spread across democratic and authoritarian societies alike that seemed to challenge the post-war order.  Historians, politicians and social commentators continue to tell competing stories of this contentious period.  For some it represented a moment of glorious opportunity for the ordinary and oppressed to construct new ways of living and being.  For others sixties radicalism marked a highpoint of the moral, cultural and economic decline that the major western nations underwent during this period.

This module will consider the meaning of “1968” in Europe.  It will introduce students to some of the key political, social and cultural features of the radicalism marking the decade. And it will adopt a comparative and transnational approach to the history of Europe’s “1968”.  Students will address how and why particular forms of revolt occurred internationally as well as those that were nationally or locally specific within different European countries. This module aims to develop students’ experience of historiography. Topics and themes to be studied include generation and memory, identity and subjectivity, student and worker activism, second-wave feminism, gender and sexuality, developments in communications technology and travel, networks and solidarities, counterculture, protest cultures and the Left.

Alongside secondary literature, students will examine, oral sources, film, literature, art, journalism, social scientific- and political writings and ephemera.