European History Gobbet Exercise

Gobbets Made Easy Vital Information for your AMH life

What the heck is a

“Gobbet”?

A "gobbet” is a concise analytical comment on a short extract from a textual documentary source, or an image. It is an exercise in de-construction, aimed at extracting the maximum historical understanding from the source in question. The answer should be brief and sharply focused on the issues arising from the source.

Notes on How to Write Gobbets

The primary documents, normally an extract of text (especially a quotation) or image, is provided as a context for analysis, discussion, or translation.

A well written gobbet should have the following elements:

§ 500 to 800 words.

§ Avoids an over-lengthy introduction and gets to the point quickly.

§ Does not simply rephrase the wording of the gobbet; but analyzes it.

§ It will identify the primary source and context, including: § Its language

§ Whether the text provided is a translation or not

§ The place where this primary source was created

§ Its purpose

§ The main characters involved

§ It will comment on the particular point or points raised in the extract (ask yourself, why was this extract set?).

§ It will explain any distinctive words or phrases.

§ It will then, towards the end, comment more discursively on some of the broader issues involved.

§ Is this a true or accurate narrative of events?

§ Are the hopes of the protagonist ultimately realized?

§ Where does this extract fit into the wider context of what we know from our sources?

To explore a primary source adequately you will need to consider a number of areas: content, context, and authorship. The following slides should help to get you thinking along the right lines.

The questions listed are not intended to be exclusive or prescriptive, or to be learnt by heart and applied to every primary source.

If a question is not relevant to a particular primary source, do not waste time on it.

If other questions occur to you, answer them instead.

Exploring a

Primary Source

Authorship

§ What is the source being analyzed? Is it a text, an image, a video?

§ What sort of material is it (journal entry, poem, song lyrics, painting, inscription, political pamphlet, documentary etc.)?

§ Who created it?

§ Why was it created?

§ Where and when was the source created?

§ How good was the creator’s knowledge of the events (s)he describes?

§ Is the creator biased? If so, which way? How is this shown in the primary source?

§ Is the creator trying to persuade the reader/listener of a particular point? If so, what? How?

§ Can anything be said about the creator’s attitudes from the passage? Does the creator’s attitude reflect or conflict with general attitudes at the time?

Thesepointsareimportantbecausetheyaffecttheinterpretationoftheprimarysource. Sources canpresentverydifferentviewsof thepastanditmakesadifferenceif thesewerecreatedatthe time of the events or centuries later. It will help you if you know the biographies of the authors/creatorsof thesource,butdonotsimplywriteall thedetailsoutat thebeginningofeach answer. Use the information where it is relevant to the interpretation of the primary source.

For example,if General Eisenhower discussed American warfare in a journal entry,the fact that he was an American general is relevant. If he is talking about Chinese warriors, it is not. If somethingyouknowabouttheauthorleadsyoutoreadthetextdifferently,mentionit.Otherwise, leaveitout.

Historical Content and

Context

§ What does the primary source describe or show?

§ Where and when do the events take place?

§ Why did they take place there and then?

§ Who is involved? Who were they? Where did they come from? What else did they do?What happened to them afterwards?

§ Why are they doing it?

§ What happened before?

§ What happened afterwards?

§ What were the consequences of the events described in the passage?

§ What was happening concurrently in the larger historical picture (e.g. war, famine, the rise of Cthulhu) when the source was created?

§ How do the events fit into the larger historical picture?

When dealing with the historical content, do not simply paraphrase the passage. If your commentary says nothing beyond the information that is already in thepassageorprimarysourcedescription, yourgradewill suffer.

When putting the passage into its historical context, stay close to the passage itself – do notwrite a general essay on the bigger picture. You can say how the passage influences our understanding of the bigger picture, or how the passage says something different when it is placed in its proper context.

In the End

When you have worked through a primary source with the questions above in mind, you should be able to say what its significance is:

§ What does the source tell us and about what?

§ Why should your reader be interested in the source material?

Gobbet Exercise prompts can be found in the Course Reader. For this assignment you are required to write on TWO topics and only ONE topic can be chosen from a particular week. In short, a complete Gobbet Exercise should look something like this:

§ Primary source 1 (Course Reader:Week 1 - option A) 500-800 words

§ Primary Source 2 (Course Reader:Week 3 - option B) 500-800 words

Gobbet Exercises should also include citations (footnotes) and a bibliography. There should be at least one citation per primary source used.

F.Y.I

§ Gobbets are designed to assess your ability to comment critically upon source material, whether a text or an object.

§ Each gobbet will have at least one specific point that should be addressed/analyzed, so always consider why a particular passage/image has been chosen.

§ For those of you also taking literature modules in other Schools, please note that history gobbets are less an exercise in textual criticism and much more an attempt to get to the heart

of the issues contained within a document, and the issues concerning the nature of the document itself.

EXAMPLE GOBBETS Can be found under Student Resources on Canvas