Microhistory is one of the most significant innovations that have presented themselves in history in the course of the last decades. Davíð Ólafsson and I argue in our book – Minor Knowledge and Microhistory (2017) – that the research methods applied by microhistory can provide opportunities for discussion about the past on the level of what might be termed in-between spaces – grey areas that open up between the institutions themselves and the people connected with them. Rather than simply assuming that communications between the two are always “one way”, from the institutions to the people, who as a result become almost passive tools in their hands, devoid of will, we can identify a “discourse” within society that takes place in in-between spaces. This is what I will discuss in this lecture along with the meaning of microhistory for historians and their research.
Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon (Historian – Ph.D.) is currently Professor of Cultural History (see: www.sgm.hi.is). He is furthermore chair of the Centre for Microhistorical Research. He has been dealing with autobiographical sources (egodocuments) for over three decades. He has written twenty-nine books published in Iceland and abroad. His latest books in English are: Minor Knowledge and Microhistory. Manuscript Culture in the Ninetheenth Century (London: Routledge, 2017), co-authored with Davíð Ólafsson; Emotional Experience and Microhistory. A Life Story of a Destitute Pauper Poet in the 19th Century (London: Routledge, 2020); Archive, Slow Ideology and Egodocuments as Microhistorical Autobiography: Potential History (London: Routledge, 2021); Autobiographical Traditions in Egodocuments. Icelandic Literary Practices (London: Bloomsbury, 2023) and finally, Disability Studies Meets Microhistory: The Secret Life of Bíbí in Berlín (London: Routledge, 2024), co-authors: Guðrún V. Stefánsdóttir and Sólveig Ólafsdóttir. He is a co-editor with István M. Szijártó of a book series, Microhistories, published by Routledge.
We are cordially inviting you to our lecture, organized by our Vilnius branch office.
Venue: Vilnius University, Faculty of History, auditorium 211
Moderator: Dr. Martynas Jakulis (Universität Vilnius)
