Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History by Michel-Rolph Trouillot focuses broadly on the themes of history, narratives, power, and silence and with these topics discusses how history is produced, who does the producing of historical narratives, and how this production contributes to silences and erasure of historical events. Trouillot divides the book into three main sections, describing Sans Souci, the Haitian Revolution, ending with the discovery of America and the overarching themes of “race, colonialism, and slavery in the Americas” (Trouillot 83). These examples showcase powerful actors silencing events in the historical past. Trouillot demonstrates that silencing of past events have taken place and continue to this day. Silencing refers to the omission and erasure of historical events and also denies a historical event its proper importance in the historical record (Trouillot 66). For the most past, history is made up of gaps in the narrative of the past. What is taught in school and the general knowledge most have of history makes up a tiny percentage of the trauma and hardships actually faced in history. Trouillot maintains that humans, as actors in history, need awareness of the silences to better …show more content…
He asserts that history is created by humans narrating the past and because of this it is intrinsically flawed and must be questioned. By declaring that “at best, history is a story about power, a story about those who won” Trouillot believes the powerful erase what they choose and that becomes history. (Trouillot 5). Likewise, Trouillot maintains that there is “unequal control over the means of historical production than with the inherent objectivity of a particular group of narrators. This does not suggest that history is never honest but rather it is always confusing” (Trouillot 140). A major aspect of these flaws is the act of silencing the past, in the form of erasure or
Rubenstein Richard, The Cunning of History. Harper and Row, 1975. Retrieved on December 04, 2013.
In conclusion, it is through these contradictions between history and memory that we learn not to completely rely on either form of representation, due to the vexing nature of the relationship and the deliberate selection and emphasis. It is then an understanding that through a combination of history and memory we can begin to comprehend representation. ‘The Fiftieth Gate’ demonstrates Baker’s conclusive realisation that both history and memory have reliability and usefulness. ‘Schindler’s List’ reveals how the context of a medium impacts on the selection and emphasis of details. ‘The Send-Off’ then explains how the contradiction between memory and history can show differing perspectives and motives.
The Nation of Haiti has been plagued with excessive bad luck when it comes to external invasion. Whether it be larger countries taking control, or outsiders brought in as slaves, Haiti has endured many hardships. These issues, while very common in a lot of countries, are exposed in a short story by a native Haitian. In “A Wall of Fire Rising”, Edwidge Danticat illustrates a myriad of historical issues in Haiti from the 17th to the 20th century through a series of events in one family’s life. One such issue would be the Haitian Revolution and the consequences that came of it.
The novel showed a pivotal point prior to the Civil War and how these issues ultimately led to the fueling of quarrel between Americans. While such institutions of slavery no longer exist in the United States, the message resonates with the struggles many groups ostracized today who continue to face prejudice from those in higher
What more is the point of learning and understanding human history than obtaining the knowledge and structure between what is right and what is wrong? We continuously believe that we as humans have the ability and intellect to learn from the lessons taught in our past in order to enrich our future. In comparison to the time frame that is human history the one hundred year period of time we discussed in the second halve of this semester is nothing but a slight blimp on the map that we have traversed. Yet, throughout our recent readings we can easily assimilate into the idea that although time may pass, and that we may attempt to learn from our history it is simply in human nature to repeat the mistakes that we have
In this reflective piece I am going to answer the questions “why is it important to know the beliefs and tradition of those who came before us?” And “what could happen if we ignore the past?” I am going to answer these questions using the following passages Freedom Walkers, Jo Ann Robinson and I am a Native North American. I am also going to talk about how if we don't study the past, we can miss a big turning point in our lives.
French occupation of Haiti began in the mid seventeenth century. For the next century and a half, the people of Haiti were forced to abandon their livelihoods and instead take up residence on namely sugar, indigo or cacao plantations in order to generate exports for the French market. Conditions on these plantations were often so cruel and oppressive that the common cause of death was exhaustion. No longer able to yield to the terms of their exploitation, Haitians participated in a string of slave revolts, the most prominent of which was led by Toussaint Louverture from 1791, which paved the road for Haitian emancipation. This essay will advance the idea that colonialism has impeded the political stability of Haiti during the nineteenth century, particularly from when Haiti formally declared independence in 1804. It will cover how issues such as; despotism, conflicting economic institutions, the militarization of the political system and racial supremacy, have negatively affected nineteenth century Haitian politics. Moreover, it will also elaborate on how these issues are, in effect, actually insidious derivatives of French rule during pre-independent Haiti.
Throughout history most of the world’s documented accounts have been interoperated by the powerful elites. History is the story of mankind; therefore like most stories, history has two perspectives. After the end of the Second World War, historians began looking to other ways of analyzing history. With the rise of the hippie movement, Vietnam War, women’s rights movement, civil rights movement, and the cold war historians started questioning how, why, and what caused society to get like this. The consensus movement was started as historians first observed the primary sources of the outsiders of society. This ultimately led to authors like Dan Richter, Woody Holton, and Walter Johnson who all look to the opposite point of view through historical events. In order to teach history correctly, we as future historians must teach a two sided interpretation of both the powerful and the powerless. Ultimately by understanding the loser’s suffrage in society that is proposed in Dan Richter’s Facing East from Indian Country,” and Walter Johnson’s Soul By Soul; as well as the outsider point of view as described in Woody Holton’s Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution; and Tyler Anbinder’s and Vincent DiGirolamo’s articles contributed to the film “Gangs of New York, we can understand how their beliefs, culture, and lives were affected by the powerful. This essay is not a novel of the history of the outsiders themselves, but a critique on how history should be studied by looking at the author’s way of using primary sources and the outsiders’ perspective on society. IN THE ESSAY I WILL BE LOOKING AT THE COMPLETE POWERLESS TO THE POWERLESS
When we assess the evils of slavery, we typically think of the North American slaves plight. We think of the beatings, murders, hangings and mistreatment of the Southern slave. But what about the slaves of Latin America? Who hears their cries of woe because of their evil slave masters? Is their treatment the same of their brethren under slave rule in North America? In order to answer these questions, it is necessary to look into the lives of both North and Latin American slaves. For our purposes, we will utilize two slave narratives. One account will come from the North American slave, Frederick Douglass, and his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. The other account will come from the narrative Autobiography of a Slave by the Cuban slave Juan Francisco Manzano. In analyzing these two slave narratives, we will compare the childhood, slave communities, slave/master relations, and literature of both Douglass and Manzano. By taking a comparative look at Frederick Douglass and Juan Francisco Manzano we will be able to hear the voices of the slaves and understand their plight.
In Equiano 's personal slave narrative, The Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Equiano uses distinguishing first person pronouns, thought provoking rhetorical questions, and eye-opening, harsh diction to flip the idea that the African people act backwards and barbaric. Equiano does so by demonstrating his personal exceptionalism through his literacy to show that truly the white people remain backwards and barbaric because of their hypocrisy. The contradiction of the perceptions of white and African people that Equiano demonstrates in his slave narrative shows that the savagery of African people is a misconception. The misconception of the perceptions of the African people makes the reader fully grasp the need to abolish
Second, the historian must place himself within the existing historical debate on the topic at hand, and state (if not so formulaically as is presented here) what he intends to add to or correct about the existing discussion, how he intends to do that (through examining new sources, asking new questions, or shifting the emphasis of pre-existing explanations), and whether he’s going to leave out some parts of the story. This fulfills the qualities of good history by alerting readers to the author’s bias in comparison with the biases of other schools of scholarship on the topic, and shows that the author is confident enough in his arguments to hold them up to other interpreta...
The San Domingo revolution led to the abolition of slavery, independence of Haiti from France and the proclamation of a black republic. However, unlike many historians, CLR James in his work, The Black Jacobins, does not depict the struggle for independence as merely a slave revolt which happened to come after the French Revolution. He goes beyond providing only a recount of historical events and offers an intimate look at those who primarily precipitated the fall of French rule, namely the black slaves themselves. In doing so, James offers a perspective of black history which empowers the black people, for they are shown to actually have done something, and not merely be the subject of actions and attitudes of others.
History has been written from the viewpoint of victors in every history textbook up to this point. In A Peoples History of the United States, Howard Zinn presents a report of history told from the perspective of the oppressed American people. It begins with the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492 and concludes with the result of the Gore and Bush 2000 presidential election. Zinn gives the unfiltered truth from educators in today's school systems. By establishing a perspective of everyday common people, as opposed to the familiar victors students have been taught in school systems, Zinn creates a recap of history that informs his readers on well known historical subjects. It describes scenarios overlooked by mainstream class books, and speaks for the voiceless. This engaging process of teaching is mind-altering, demonstrating how the roles of wealth, race, and gender play a role in American history.
As Berger says, “the art of the past is being mystified because a privileged minority is striving to invent a history which can retrospectively justify the role of the ruling classes, and such a justification can no longer make sense in modern terms” (157). The upper class mystifies us to stay in control; without being able to see things in our own way, we are being deprived from our right to understanding ourselves and placing ourselves in a role of society.
History is no more confined to a monolithic collection of facts and their hegemonic interpretations but has found a prominent space in narratives. The recent surge in using narrative in contemporary history has given historical fiction a space in historiography. With Hayden White’s definition of history as a “verbal structure in the form of a narrative prose discourse” literature is perceived to be closer to historiography, in the present age (ix). History has regained acceptance and popularity in the guise of fiction, as signified by the rising status of historical fiction in the post colonial literary world.