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
canpresentverydifferentviewsofthepastanditmakesadifferenceifthesewerecreatedatthe
time of the events or centuries later. It will help you if you know the biographies of the
authors/creatorsofthesource,butdonotsimplywriteallthedetailsoutatthebeginningofeach
answer. Use the information where it is relevant to the interpretation of the primary source.
Forexample,if GeneralEisenhowerdiscussedAmericanwarfare in a journalentry,the factthat
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 inthe passage or primary source description, your gradewill suffer.
When putting the passage into its historical context, stay close to the
passage itself – do not write a general essay on the bigger picture. You can
say how the passage influences our understanding ofthe 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