This course introduces fundamental theories concerning history as narrative. It will discuss selected texts of history writing and examine different narrative strategies across various cultural traditions such as in medias res, impersonation, stream of consciousness, magical realism, foreshadowing, self-fulfilling prophecy, poetic justice, multi-perspectivity, etc. It will also discuss the use of language and aesthetics in different historical narratives from various cultural perspectives, and then encourage students to write a piece of history of the world they are living in, e.g. Hong Kong, and connect it with his/her own biography.

Histories and Narratives