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Proportions or Perspectives? Didactic Medievalism – Moving the Body to the Fore in Czech History Textbooks

Publication date: 30.12.2024

Studia Historica Gedanensia, 2024, Volume 15 (2024)/2, pp. 305-318

https://doi.org/10.4467/23916001HG.24.034.20462

Authors

Martin Šorm
Czech Academy of Sciences
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7026-4333 Orcid
All publications →

Titles

Proportions or Perspectives? Didactic Medievalism – Moving the Body to the Fore in Czech History Textbooks

Abstract

This paper analyses history textbooks currently used in the Czech Republic; it focuseson how they deal with the issue of the historicity of the body and its related functions, and relations in premodern history. It shows that the medieval body is surprisingly present in primary and secondary education, at least through history textbooks. The ways in which it is presented, however, are problematic: it remains at the margins of the canonical narrative and is not used to develop key competencies associated with historical thinking (unlike some topics in political history). In explanatory texts the history of the body is incorporated mostly in apparently unreflective ways. The author argues that a rearrangement of information and changes of perspective (which would make the historicity of the body the focus of the interpretation) would be enough to offer a more complex view of the historicity of the human body in premodern societies. He also expresses hope for more researchoriented (thus not just transmissive) teaching materials.

Information

Information: Studia Historica Gedanensia, 2024, Volume 15 (2024)/2, pp. 305-318

Article type: Original scientific article

Authors

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7026-4333

Martin Šorm
Czech Academy of Sciences
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7026-4333 Orcid
All publications →

Czech Academy of Sciences

Published at: 30.12.2024

Article status: Open

Licence: None

Percentage share of authors:

Martin Šorm (Author) - 100%

Article corrections:

-

Publication languages:

English

Proportions or Perspectives? Didactic Medievalism – Moving the Body to the Fore in Czech History Textbooks

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