Moved by the Past

Discontinuity and Historical Mutation
Erscheinungsjahr 2014
ISBN: 978-0-231-16820-5
Verlag: Columbia University Press

Buch, Englisch, 264 Seiten, Format (B × H): 167 mm x 236 mm, Gewicht: 544 g

Reihe: European Perspectives: A Series in Social Thought and Cultural Criticism

Historians go to great lengths to avoid confronting discontinuity, searching for explanations as to why such events as the fall of the Berlin Wall, George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq, and the introduction of the euro logically develop from what came before. Moved by the Past radically breaks with this tradition of predating the past, incites us to fully acknowledge the discontinuous nature of discontinuities, and proposes to use the fact that history is propelled by unforeseeable leaps and bounds as a starting point for a truly evolutionary conception of history.

Integrating research from a variety of disciplines, Eelco Runia identifies two modes of being "moved by the past": regressive and revolutionary. In the regressive mode, the past may either overwhelm us as in nostalgia or provoke us to act out what we believe to be solidly dead. When we are moved by the past in a revolutionary sense, we may be said to embody history: we burn our bridges behind us and create accomplished facts we have no choice but to live up to. In the final thesis of Moved by the Past, humans energize their own evolution by habitually creating situations ("catastrophes" or sublime historical events) that put a premium on mutations. This book therefore illuminates how every now and then we chase ourselves away from what we were and force ourselves to become what we are. Proposing a simple yet radical change in perspective, Runia profoundly reorients how we think and theorize about history.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Runia, Eelco

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein Geschichtsphilosophie, Philosophie der Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein Geschichtspolitik, Erinnerungskultur

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction1. Burying the Dead, Creating the Past2. "Forget About It"3. Presence4. Spots of Time5. Thirsting for Deeds: Schiller and the Historical Sublime6. Into Cleanness Leaping: The Vertiginous Urge to Commit History7. Inventing the New from the Old8. Crossing the Wires in the Pleasure Machine9. Our Own Best Enemy: How Humans Energize Their EvolutionCodaNotesIndex

Leseproben

Read "Burying the Dead, Creating the Past," the first chapter to Moved by the Past:

Über Autor(innen)

Eelco Runia is a novelist and chair of the Centre for Metahistory at Groningen University in the Netherlands. His novels and essayistic work on the making and writing of history address the question of how and why humans habitually disrupt their lives by saddling themselves with accomplished facts of their own making.