Introduction: Textured historicity and the ambivalence of imperial legacies

Jeremy F Walton

doi:10.1080/02757206.2019.1612387

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn pursuit of a novel perspective on legacies of empire in the present, this introduction addresses prominent debates related to post-imperialism, collective memory, and the construction of historical knowledge, while also reviewing recent trends in post-Habsburg and post-Ottoman studies. First, I examine the insights and limitations of ‘memory studies,’ ultimately proposing a more capacious model of post-imperial ‘ambivalence.’ I then recapitulate Walter Benjamin’s dialectical approach to historical knowledge in order to anchor the signal conceptual contribution of the volume, ‘textured historicity.’ This discussion is followed by a meditation on the role of metaphors in conceptualizing post-imperial legacies and a roster of the most common metaphors for post-imperial legacies. Finally, the introduction briefly summarizes the volume’s constituent essays and the rubrics that unite them.

Highlights

Textured historicity and the ambivalence of imperial legacies Jeremy F
I examine the insights and limitations of ‘memory studies,’ proposing a more capacious model of post-imperial ‘ambivalence.’ I recapitulate Walter Benjamin’s dialectical approach to historical knowledge in order to anchor the signal conceptual contribution of the volume, ‘textured historicity.’. This discussion is followed by a meditation on the role of metaphors in conceptualizing postimperial legacies and a roster of the most common metaphors for post-imperial legacies
While much has been made of the effects of national(ized) collective memory on images of imperial pasts, the mutual figurations and reconfigurations of multiple, cohabiting post-imperial memories have received scant attention

Summary

Introduction

Textured historicity and the ambivalence of imperial legacies Jeremy F. Such present- and future-oriented imperatives accentuate imperial pasts in selective ways, yielding new constellations of post-imperial amnesia as well as memory.

Results

Conclusion