History and Memory

I am about to teach a unit to my year 12 students, titiled "History and Memory." In this unit my students will consider how the representation of history through culture has shaped people's memory and the collective memory of historic events. The focus of our study will be Stephen Frear's film, The Queen. It is a well constructed film that utilises real footage of historic events throughout the film. I am really interested in this concept and it made me think about the role that culture has in the representation of history. Today I watched one of my favourite films... "Charlie Wilson's War." This film details the work of Congressman Charles Wilson's successful efforts to thwart the then Soviet's attack on Afghanistan. I have also purchased two films today that could also fit into this category - "Downfall" which was nominated for the Academy Award's Best Foreign Film category in 2005. I also purchased Frost / Nixon. I look forward to watching both of these films. I suppose this genre has always interested me - actually politics and military history are two passions of mine, so I think the idea of the social or cultural construction of history has been an interest of mine. 

I am not sure how my students will respond to some of these big, conceptual ideas - some of them very sophisticated and really requiring some life experience. In any case, I am sure they will approach this study with the same interest and fervour as they did, for our study of Hamlet.