Tema 12

Teofilo F. Ruiz

UCLA, EEUU

"Teaching and Writing about the Social History of Late Medieval Spain:

>Centers and Peripheries,"

>

> In this presentation, I aim to examine the present state of social history

>and the writing and teaching of late medieval and early modern Spnaih

>history from the perspective of social history. How does the "new" social

>history has fared under the impact of the so-called "linguistic turn"? How

>has social history met the challange of the return of political and

>narrative strategies? Thus, I hope to present ways in which social history

>can be taught and studied independently of chronological restraints imposed

>by political events or by dated concepts about social orders and class.

> In addition, I hope to be be able to discuss the difficulties and

>advantages of writing and teaching about Spanish medieval history in the

>United States and the shifting methodological difficulties of dealing with

>such linguistic and ideological constructs as centers and peripheries. In

>fact, I wish to argue for the different perspectives of looking at the

>history of late medieval and early modern Spain from imagined centers and

>peripheries, as well as placing that history within a broader European

>comparative context.

>

> The emphasis of my presentation will be equally placed on the dual problem

>of doing history on the eve of a new millenium but also on teaching

>history, that is, the manner in which we communicate to our students and

>the general public in general our individual and collective anxieties about

>doing history today.

>