This course explores the use of photography as a historical source. In line with a more general “visual turn” in the humanities, it examines the representation of political, social, and cultural change through photographic images. More specifically, the course focuses on the interplay between photography, propaganda, memory, and resistance in authoritarian regimes, investigating how photography has been employed as a tool for legitimizing but also subverting and resisting authoritarianism. Through interdisciplinary perspectives drawing from history, visual studies, cultural studies, and political science, we will explore the multifaceted roles of photography in shaping ruling ideologies but also counternarratives and dissident imagery in various societies. Each session will cover a specific historical case study, from the Great War and the Spanish Civil War to World War II, the Holocaust, the civil rights movements, daily life under communism and the anti-communist revolutions of 1989. Students will engage with critical theory on photography, memory, and historiography while also considering photography’s power to create collective memory and its role in the construction of historical narratives.
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