Historical Temporality Research Articles

A leitura de Hegel de Alexandre Kojève e seu duplo legado

Kojève represents a pivotal point not only for the reception of Hegel in the 20th century, but for continental philosophy as a whole. By reading Hegel unilaterally, with a magnifying glass on the logic of the lord-bondsman relationship, Kojève imploded the traditional philosophy of history and anticipated, from within Hegelianism, treatments of historical temporality that would appear in opposition to Hegel with the emergence of French structuralism. In Kojève’s reading, humanism and the strong notion of a subject who produces the world also collapse of their own weight. The author thus demonstrates how this “double unavailability”– of man and of history – that so well characterizes continental philosophy in the second half of the 20th century finds its precursor in Kojève’s seminars. (Translator’s abstract).

Looking backwards, looking forwards: collective and critical conversations on psychology in South Africa

To mark the 30th anniversary of the Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA), 11 of PsySSA’s past presidents, along with two facilitators, gathered in early 2024 for a roundtable discussion on psychology in South Africa. This article represents an edited transcript of that conversation. The guiding motif of the discussion – looking backwards, looking forwards – led discussants through the historical temporalities, institutional, professional and disciplinary debates, as well as the political concerns that face and have forged South African psychology. The discussants were specifically concerned with the challenges of unifying organised psychology; the generative forces, conflicts and antagonisms within psychology; psychology’s pedagogical and intellectual developments; and what it means to politicise psychology in and beyond South Africa. In looking ahead, the discussion concluded with an internationalist reflection on how psychology in South Africa contributes to global knowledges and praxes. The conversation was characterised by epistemic, sectoral and political tensions, as well as ambivalences and shifting centres of gravity, all of which reflect the accomplishments made within South African psychology, as well as psychology’s status as a strongly contested and patently unfinished organisational, disciplinary, professional, service and knowledge project.

Periodisation and modernity: an introduction

ABSTRACT Dividing time into separate epochs is fundamental to historical research. However, while periodisations reflect particular interpretations of political, economic, social, and cultural developments, they often rely on the concept of ‘modernity’ as a foundation. This nexus between modernity and periodisation is well-established yet deeply problematic. Pre- or non-modern times and spaces are deemed deficient and backward, as not yet modern. This bias extends to colonial and postcolonial regions, where Western historical paradigms were imposed to interpret political and social realities. Confronting these biases unveils how historians conceptualize space and time and highlights the normative assumptions embedded within different forms of periodisation. However, simply expanding the scope or timeframes of research alone does not address the dilemma. Historians do well to historicise this nexus and develop alternative approaches to writing history. The intricate relationship between periodization and modernity forms the intellectual starting point of this special issue. Originating from dialogues between medieval and modern European history, this issue aims to critically reevaluate classical periodisation models and explore alternative paradigms. By integrating contributions from scholars of medieval, early modern, modern, and contemporary European history, this issue bridges previously separated debates, promotes a comprehensive understanding of historical temporalities and challenges established historiographical norms.

Entre historia y literatura: las mediaciones míticas en los lenguajes políticos del indigenismo en el Perú (1919-1928)

Objective/context: The decade of the 1920s witnessed a significant transformation in Peruvian political culture with the widespread recognition of the indigenous problem as a socioeconomic phenomenon, which paved the way for new political languages. This article aims to recover the role of myth in the Peruvian indigenista debate during this period. Specifically, it delves into the literary polemic of indigenismo in 1927, focusing on how intellectuals from Lima, Cusco, and Puno bestowed their arguments with legitimacy, effectively intertwining literature and history through the incorporation of mythical elements. Methodology: The study proposes an examination of the arguments put forth by indigenista intellectuals using the tools of conceptual history, drawing heavily from Hans Blumenberg’s work on myth. This theoretical framework helps uncover the semantic foundations of Peruvian indigenist’s language and sheds light on the historical temporalities of their political projects. Originality: This article advances a novel analysis of the intellectual field by reinterpreting primary sources related to the 1927 indigenismo polemic, reconstructing synchronic languages on national identity, and highlighting the role of myth as a significant rhetorical device. By exploring how supporters of indigenismo creatively employed myth to imagine the past and mobilize politically, this study uncovers previously overlooked conceptual shifts and their mythical underpinnings. Conclusions: The study argues that myth played a crucial role in shaping the political language of a new generation of Peruvian intellectuals. Indigenismo facilitated the emergence of novel conceptual frameworks that interrogated national identity, accelerated expectations of change, and incorporated mythical elements from indigenous experiences, including rebellions in the south and the activities of the Comité Pro-Derecho Indígena Tahuantinsuyo. Concepts such as nation and socialism were democratized and imbued with mythical significance, reflecting the diverse temporalities within the indigenista movement.

MAKING THE PAST SPEAK: ACCELERATION, RESONANCE, AND PRESENCE1

ABSTRACTThis review essay offers an extended analysis of Hartmut Rosa's Resonance: A Sociology of Our Relationship to the World. By proposing a critical theory for our present times, the book dissects modes of being related to the world and how these relations are conditioned by the dynamic of escalation that is inscribed into modern social formations. Rosa argues that the wide‐ranging compulsion to grow, accelerate, and innovate produces a distorted and alienated mode of being in the world, suppressing and limiting possibilities for developing dialogic and responsive relations that are characterized by the concept of resonance. This review essay parses the categorical distinction between alienation and resonance, critically interrogating Rosa's notion that resonant relations form the basis for a good and successful life. While my analysis argues that the structural shortage of resonant relations can make subjects and collectives vulnerable to acting on the promise of resonance—possibly giving rise to problematic and undesired effects—I nonetheless contend that the concept of resonance is an effective explanatory tool that exhibits significant potential for interdisciplinary engagement. To illustrate this potential, I explore the extent to which Rosa's theorizing can illuminate contemporary matters of history and historical temporality. More specifically, I consider the perspective that the framework of resonance provides a comprehensive background for the paradigm of presence and the related surge in interest to theorize bodily and perceptual modes of being connected to the past.

Timescapes, subjectivity and emotions after the India–Tibet earthquake, 1950

Abstract Scholarship on historical temporality has explored what time meant to people in the past. Going further, how did historical actors’ perception of time shape their experience of events? Jean and Francis Kingdon-Ward, two British travellers, lived through a major earthquake on India and Tibet’s mountainous frontier in 1950. Their numerous published and unpublished narrative accounts showed that the earthquake severely disrupted their physical environment, inducing powerful emotions and changing their sense of the passage of time. Comparisons with other accounts by British and some Indian survivors of mid twentieth-century earthquakes in South Asia showed that others, too, felt that earthquakes disrupted their sense of linear, well-ordered time. This article develops Barbara Adam’s concept of timescapes to emphasize how a temporal subject-position is made up of feelings and thoughts. It draws on psychological research on the relationship between emotion and time-perception to reveal a temporal subjectivity that extended through and beyond a moment of extreme stress, and was closely connected to place. New insights are offered for scholarship on the histories of emotions, subjectivity and the environment, putting emotions more firmly into our understanding of historical time.

The Problem of Management in Conditions of Contingent Historical Temporality

The author makes an attempt to explicate the changes in the historical context of managerial activity. The philosophy of history serves as a basis that shapes the meaning-making and goal-setting of managerialism. Progressist schemes were clearly manifested in management in the XIX–XX centuries, but in the XXI century progress is no longer the dominant philosophy of historical time. It is being replaced by other versions of temporality, thus forming new problems for managerial theories and practices. The author aims at identifying the conditions of changes in historical forms of temporality as the basis of management goal-setting, at problematizing the meaning and forms of management in the context of contingency. The text traces the transformation of anagerial forms caused by the changing contexts of historical temporality. It has been noted that the loss of trategic vision of the future in managerial activity changes both management practices and the tasks that are presented to management. At the same time, managerial forms of knowledge (modernist sciences), previously dominant within the framework of progressist schemes of history, show their unsuitability in the context of contingent temporality. The spread of contingency as a historical scheme of perception of historical time forms the problem of the meaning of management; the horizon of the future, which previously served as a reference point in management and motivated qualitative changes in the social order through managerial actions (planning), disappears. The main task of philosophy of management, therefore, is to form answers to the challenges posed to it by the new version of the philosophy of history.

포스트휴머니즘 시대의 역사적 시간성에 관한 세 테제

The discussion of the Anthropocene, concerns the global environments and reflection on traditional humanism, which have taken place after COVID-19, led to new changes in the historiography. These changes are more in-depth and fundamental than those raised by so-called 'postmodern history' or memory boom. Above all, the changes of the historical temporality are of importance. Three changes that are closely related to each other, are detected. Firstly, there is no one single temporality in history. Instead multiple temporalities of society and nature coexist now. Secondly, the modern historical temporality, which is composed of the past, present, and future, faced a crisis and entered a period where only the present expands. Various factors are into play in this, but in my view, the increased 'networks' between humans and non-human beings play a key role. Thirdly, it is now starting to give more meaning to subjective than objective temporality. Because the time is considered now disconnected rather than continuous, historical events are constituted not by the objective but by the subjective meanings.

Three Versions of Social Science in Late Eighteenth-Century France

The term science sociale was first employed by Mirabeau père in 1767, not Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès in 1789, as historians until now believed. Taking this discovery as its starting point, this article examines the ways in which the idea of a science of society was successively conceptualized in the late eighteenth century by Mirabeau, Sieyès, and Nicolas de Condorcet. Situating their ideas in the context of evolving discussions over the reform of the French state, it argues that they developed three different versions of social science, and that these reflected different attempts to answer the question of how to achieve collective prosperity, justice, and happiness under modern conditions. This article further highlights the changing modes of historical temporality that informed those approaches, which shifted from a focus on the social forms of a mythical past, to a concern with the prevailing norms of the present, to an emphasis, finally, on the likely developments of an ever-perfecting future. In doing so, it shows that the history of early French social science is best understood not as a process of gradual advancement, but rather as one of serial reinvention.

On Being Present to History: Historicity and Brigand Spirits in Madagascar

Abstract This article explores the unexpected arrival of new spirits in possession of young spirit mediums at an annual ceremony in Majunga, Madagascar. In it, the author explores the significance of the event for local politics, but also uses it to exemplify a form of historicity distinct from that of Euro-American historicism, with respect to both the structure of historical temporality and the nature of historical truth/knowledge, experience, responsiveness, and action. The article further argues that the action of the spirits or mediums is simultaneously an interpretation of circumstances and that one might think more broadly of historical action as interpretive.

White-collar comedy and Toho’s ‘Wholesome Color’ in Japan’s era of high economic growth

ABSTRACT Throughout Japan’s era of high economic growth (1952–1971), hundreds of films were produced featuring the salaryman, or male white-collar worker. While each major studio produced films concerning this figure, Toho Studios was best known for their salaryman comedies. This article examines Toho’s popular Company President series (1956-1970), which consists of thirty-three films released across fourteen years. Redefining the concept of ‘comic timing,’ I argue that the series’ comedic vocabulary is organized around historical temporalities and a time-based perception of white-collar work’s specificity. I then connect textual readings of the series to Toho’s own identity crafted in the studio’s promotional magazine and film periodicals. By highlighting its management style and technological superiority, Toho crafted a self-image as a white-collar workplace that is coextensive with the brightness of their workplace comedies. The studio’s emphasis in films and corporate identity on wholesomeness, brightness, and rationalism are placed in tension with Toho’s earlier history of labour relations. Toho and white-collar comedies act as an important example of an ‘employee culture’ that was elaborated in the era of high economic growth, positing the salaryman as a paradigmatic postwar subject.

Tempos da História: Uma Visão Geral dos Estudos acerca do Tempo Relacionados à Teoria da História (Conceitos, Questões e Tendências)

Abstract This article proposes a four-layered diagram that displays as an overview of the current field of historical time studies according to the following branches of investigation: 1) the metaphysics of natural time, 2) the metaphysics of historical time, 3) the regimes of historicity, and 4) historiographical regimes. By defining these fields and their connections, identifying essential concepts, revealing the questions they address, and sketching tendencies that have emerged since the 2000s, this article tackles historical temporality as a theoretical and historiographical subject. This framework, which portrays the state of the art in temporal studies, allows for the presentation and classification of the variety of contributions gathered in this special edition.

A történetiség fogalma a történeti tudományokban

Historicity in the Historical Sciences
 Not every history writing is apt to apply the notion of historicity, the antique Greek and Roman ones surely do not use it: one cannot find in their narratives the trace of any temporal perspective. Martin Heidegger was the first, who elaborated in his fundamental ontology the concept of historicity, which, however, was already an integral element of the historist historical scholarship. The more recent influential notion of historical temporality was worked out later on by Reinhart Koselleck by postulating among others the concept of the„contemporaneity of the noncontemporaneous” (Gleichzeitigkeit der Ungleichzeitigen). This suggests that there does not exist an absolut present (and past and future), because the existents of different duration are simultaneously to be found and have their impact all at once at a given point of time. If the thesis is right then one can refute the notion of a teleologically determined linear evolution, which tends to assess any deviation from this as a purely deviant and deformed development. The case is further compounded by Fernand Braudel’s triad notion of historical temporality, which argues that the various existents (events and structures) have different durations. Taken all together it is recommended for historians to take seriously the temporal diversity available at a given moment, and not to try to making any effort for synchronizing the various time strata.
 Keywords: effective history, „contemporaneity of the noncontemporaneous”, revival, backwardness, synchronization of the various time strata

From the Editor

From the Editor

“What does it mean to make a picture of the now?”

“What does it mean to make a picture of the now?”

Unfolding Political Emergence: The Knowledge of Visual Artworks in Peter Weiss’sThe Aesthetics of Resistance

Starting out from the interpretation of Picasso’s Guernica in Peter Weiss’s The Aesthetics of Resistance, this essay discusses how, why, and for what purposes Weiss inserted extensive discussions of classical and contemporary artworks in his novel. More specifically, and by introducing the two notions of the foldout and political emergence, the essay investigates how the visual artworks in Weiss’s narrative reconfigure understandings of temporality, collectivity, and realism. A central question concerns the novel’s way of transforming representations of objective oppression, and even death itself, into figures of emancipatory subjective agency. Analyses of the novel’s interpretive engagement with visual artworks such as Guernica demonstrate how these sections of the novelistic text interrupt historical temporality, establish a transhistorical collectivity, and superimpose the experience of the victim with the perspective of the witness. In this way, it is argued, Weiss’s narrative enables an identification with the mute experience of destruction while converting that experience into a future-oriented political force: the emergence and continuation of collective struggle.

From Past to Future: The Soviet Union and the Russian Empire in Discourses of Rupture and Continuity

ABSTRACT In the still highly politicized question of rupture or continuity between the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, elements of continuity are not hard to find, nor should this be a surprise, since a new state arose in the same geographical space and made use of the economic, intellectual, and demographic resources inherited from the Russian Empire. At the same time, the Soviet Union could not have been more different than the Russian Empire. It rejected a number of key elements of the sociopolitical project that underlay the nationalizing tsarist empire and introduced radically new political and social principles for organizing that space. In particular, the Bolsheviks purposefully engaged in dismantling the tsarist efforts to build a great ethnic-Russian nation to stand at the center of the Russian Empire’s nationalities policy. The irreversible disintegration of post-Soviet space into separate nationalizing states became possible only toward the end of the twentieth century. At the same time, the imperial nature of the modern post-Soviet Russian core permits us to say that the imperial logic has survived. This is where we can find an element of inescapable continuity. We present studies of “continuities” and “ruptures” in modern academic discourse and in an updated format, gravitating toward “empirically nuanced” tools for analyzing multiple historical temporalities.

The modern Epimetheus: Carl Schmitt's katechontism as reactionary chronopolitics

This paper deals with the reactionary form of chronopolitics that characterizes the work of the German jurist, political theorist, and radical conservative intellectual Carl Schmitt (1888–1985). Called both the latest classic of political thought and the Crown Jurist of the Third Reich, Schmitt remains a controversial figure, not least because of his practical support of the Nazi regime and his authoritarianism. Another controversial aspect of Schmitt's work are his unabashed and outspoken references to theology as a resource for legal and political thought. Many commentators regard Schmitt's support for the Nazi regime, his general authoritarianism, and his recourse to theology as expressions of an apocalyptic worldview that is taken to form the basis for his alleged decisionism. This in turn matches an analysis of twentieth-century totalitarianisms as constituting innerworldly forms of radical millenarian faith. However, the structure of Schmitt's politico-theological reason should be understood in a very different way. Rather than affirming the apocalyptic and millenarian energies of totalitarian movements, Schmitt attempted to formulate a theory aimed at containing them and averting their revolutionary fervor in defense of the state. At the heart of this endeavor was the Biblical figure of the katechon, “the restrainer” of the Antichrist and lawlessness as described in the Second Letter to the Thessalonians. Focusing particularly on a short but dense essay published in 1950, the paper lays bare the basis for Schmitt's avertive apocalypticism, or katechontism, which can be regarded as the politico-theological emblem of what Schmitt himself in contrast to decisionism described as concrete order thinking. The form of reactionary chronopolitics Schmitt expresses there is analyzed with the help of theories of modern historical temporality and contextualized through his own references to contemporary conservative thinkers like Hans Freyer, Karl Löwith, and Konrad Weiss.

Horace's Ode 1.12: Subterranean Lyrics

Horace's Ode 1.12 is commonly thought to be alluding to the wedding between Augustus' nephew C. Claudius Marcellus and Augustus' daughter Julia in 25 b.c.e., but there are equally good poetic reasons for reading the poem instead as alluding to the young Marcellus' demise in the last quarter of 23 b.c.e. and to see it in direct dialogue with the epicedia for Marcellus composed by Virgil and Propertius. The present paper reviews the evidence for either dating and proposes that the poem actively resists and at the same time engenders historicist interpretations by virtue of lyric's ability to create its own historical temporalities. As a poem touching upon the thorny issue of the acceptability of imperial succession in a period when Augustus' life was in danger, Ode 1.12 can be read as actively engaged in a hermeneutic "conspiratorial" game with its readers, prompting them to question or imagine allusions to contemporary events at a time of utmost political instability.

How does a film remember? Cinematic memory as a living constellation in El escarabajo de oro o Victorias Hämnd

ABSTRACT The film El escarabajo de oro o Victorias Hämnd (2014), directed by the Argentinean-Swedish duo Alejo Moguillansky and Fia-Stina Sandlund, presents clashing storylines, histories, merged film genres and conflicting aspirations within a transnational film production set in Argentina. It stages a performance founded on real circumstances, where two filmmakers (Moguillansky and Sandlund) begin working on a biopic based on the life of Victoria Benedictsson, a 19th-century Swedish feminist writer, but then, partly in secrecy, the main character changes to her contemporary, Leandro N. Alem, an Argentinean revolutionary politician, while all gets tangled up in a fictional story of a treasure hunt. The film crosses boundaries between documentary and fiction with its maze of rogues, tricksters, and unreliable narrators, opening up stories within stories. In the performance of the documentary filmmaking process, there is a constant struggle over memory: whose (hi)story gets to be told and from what angle. In this article, cinematic memory in El escarabajo de oro o Victorias Hämnd is delineated through the performative gestures of reenactment and voice-over narration as aesthetic strategies that promote a non-linear, multidirectional perception of remembering. I suggest that the film offers an alternative way to approach cinematic memory, not attaching the act of remembering to an individual, a group or a nation, but to the film form itself. The film engenders cinematic memory as a living constellation, where diverse historical temporalities exist simultaneously and interact freely. In the film, cinematic memory is constantly being created and recreated in the here and now.