History and Literature

Last Tuesday we talked about how experience affects our views of history and the importance of testimonial novels . We discussed the difference between novels and historiography as two major ways of documenting history. While the former gives us a sense of personal account of historical events such that we feel it as a near and immediate incident and identify with the narrator's emotions, the latter displays to us a wider picture of what happened through statistics, news, and tangible objects and is thus a more systematic record of history. Though the two reveal different and even sometimes contrasted sides of the history, the two can act as complements to each other. I would say that oral history (here means the record of history as orally narrated by those who experienced a historical event) is a means of documentation that combines the two methods. On the one hand we as listeners can feel the more sensual emotional aspects of the experiencer, the cross-analysis of multiple oral records give us a sense of the shared memory of a number of experiencers and can thus eliminate inaccurate facts caused by the loss of memory.

The importance of recording the Holocaust by means of testimonies is the barbaric and traumatic experience of it which is beyond the articulation of language. By presenting the experience in a transcendental and poetic way, we may be more close to the situation of the victims. Lvi's words, for instance, breaks the dichotomy of evil Germans vs. innocent Jews (thus are more moral). He also presents the corrupted sides of the Jews in the hard situation when physical survival is their prime concern. He also touches upon how one's morality easily collapses when one's survival is the only concern. Such abstract ideas are not found in data or hard facts. The use of a personal account of history (given his literary and presentation of ideas are up to standard) can more effectively convey the lessons to the audience and younger generations. By inviting readers to feel the situations, readers are more struck and impressed by the massiveness of man's evil, and find it easier to learnt  the lesson by heart.

Yet, today, the historical education we receive today only gives us a detached point of view, we are taught how many Jews are killed and how evil and malicious the Nazis are, without keeping in mind how easy it is to follow the mistakes of the Nazis. We are taught only the one-sided viewpoints, which is easily reached by simple presentations of figures, without knowing a more nuanced situation or putting ourselves in people's shoes. With the lack of imagination and empathy, we view history as something intellectual, distant and unrelated to daily life. At lessons we are taught how to analyse the data, facts mechanically. Teachers seldom gave us scenarios to imagine and identify with.  We thus see history as a dead subject without ever trying to put ourselves in the historical figure's shoes. Thus the generation gap, thus we don't understand why our grandparents have opposite viewpoints to us.

The Yolocaust phenomena, likewise, is the adverse result of our lack of a 'live history' education. We are detached from our past, emotionally, plus the commercialisation of tourist industry and a lack of cultural education in tourism.

Our history education needs to be more nuanced (neutral but at the same time lively). The education of June 4th Incident is always presented to us as a tragic event that arouses our mourning. While this is true, it is also hard to share the same sense by those who haven't witnessed the event. Thus there comes a call to view the incident more neutrally than sensually, or even to exclude it from our history education,

The education of history, indeed, affects the values and mindsets of younger generations. Attention needs to be raised on how history should be designed to be comprehensible to those having no experience of it, but not only taking the viewpoints of the designers or the older generations. Society should be open to different viewpoints, as this is a way to prevent radical, one-sided ideologies.

9 May 2017

(Image: taken on 15 October 2018 at Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor in Yan'an City, Shaanxi Province, Mainland China)