Browse Hierarchy HIST7001: History That Was Not: Counterfactuals and Alternate History

The module will examine the history and uses of counterfactual constructions in historiography and in popular culture, including novels, games, movies and design. Thought experiments with counterfactuals (`What would have happened, if...' question) are not only integral elements of an everyday way of thinking about the past. Since antiquity, they have had their place in historiography, too. Romances and novels experimented with historical counterfactuals in the late Middle Ages as well as in the early modern period. From the 1970s onwards, a flood of alternate history novels has been published. Since the 1990s, 'Steampunk', a new literary sub-genre as well as a design movement that speculates on alternative 19th century technologies, has found an increasing number of adherents. These trends seem to suggest that the creation of an artificial 'alternative' past not only questions the societal role of historiography but also challenges the traditional constructions of historical identities. The module will examine all of these developments in depth. It will also discuss the underlying problems, i.e. historical causality, speculations about so-called laws of history, human freedom vis-a-vis the structures of historical development, and the interrelations between historiography, philosophy, literature and art.