At the closing of last week\u2019s seminar, we discussed the word \u201ctransnational\u201d itself, and whether people prioritised the \u2018trans\u2019 or the \u2018national\u2019 parts of the word. Personally, I like to emphasise transnational history\u2019s \u2018trans\u2019 component over its \u2018national\u2019, but I found it extremely interesting to learn that there were some who preferred its \u2018national\u2019; I wonder whether my interpretation and emphasis will change by the end of the semester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This week\u2019s readings gave us even more concrete examples of how the framework\/methodology of transnational history can be utilised. I chose to read the selections from Transnational Lives: Biographies of Global Modernity, 1700-Present<\/em> as I was curious to see how transnational history could be explored through the medium of biographies (or how biographies could be explored through the medium of transnational history). The introduction provided another useful outlook of how the authors intended to use the transnational framework to tell their stories, stating poignantly, \u201cLives elude national boundaries; but biography the telling of life stories, has often been pressed into the service of nation, downplaying its fleeting acknowledgement of lives lived in motion\u201d (p. 2). I love the idea of \u201clives lived in motion\u201d, I think it greatly exemplifies what transnational interpretations are here to represent and emphasise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking at the first chapter by Martha Hodes, which explores the life of Eunice Connolly, a wife of a sea captain from the British West Indies, I was reminded of Milinda\u2019s critique on the OXO essay, as Hodes used the framework of transnational history alongside a feminist investigation that was not explored in the OXO essay. This chapter in particular was helpful as it served as an example of how one can use other schools of historical thought or lens alongside transnational history. Hodes also discussed the challenges she experienced while writing: the challenges of writing a narrative that was both local and global, archival gaps, and proving the historical significance of Connolly\u2019s transnational life. Her admittance of these difficulties exemplifies the challenges of transnational writing, but Hodes\u2019s self awareness allowed her to delve even further in her analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I most enjoyed chapter 15 by Penny Russell, and her analysis on Jane Franklin, who reached across borders to appeal for the search of her missing husband and his crew, who had gone on an arctic exploration and failed to return. There was a lot to unpack in Franklin\u2019s story, where Franklin herself \u201cblended her appeals to universal female sympathy, the bonds of the \u2018civilised world\u2019, the ties of a cosmopolitan scientific community and the special interests of nation\u201d (p. 205). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Although I am still not sure about what direction to go in for my final project and imminent first essay, this week\u2019s readings certainly gave me insight to the possibilities, and have given me a lot to think about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At the closing of last week\u2019s seminar, we discussed the word \u201ctransnational\u201d itself, and whether people prioritised the \u2018trans\u2019 or the \u2018national\u2019 parts of the word. Personally, I like to emphasise transnational history\u2019s \u2018trans\u2019 component over its \u2018national\u2019, but I<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5wNtZ-py","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1584"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1587,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1584\/revisions\/1587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}