Mark S. Massa
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199734122
- eISBN:
- 9780199866373
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199734122.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter introduces the law of unintended consequences for understanding Catholic changes since Vatican II. The law of unintended consequences simply refers to the insight that historical ...
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This chapter introduces the law of unintended consequences for understanding Catholic changes since Vatican II. The law of unintended consequences simply refers to the insight that historical actions, once undertaken, have consequences of their own, regardless of the actors who made them. This insight is especially important with regard to the Second Vatican Council, as recent debates centered on the intentions of the participants at the event in 1962–65. The chapter thus offers a distinctive point of view on what many refer to as the “Vatican II battles” over the meaning of that Council: it argues that Catholics first recognized historical change in the years after the Second Vatican Council. It was the growth of this historical consciousness within the Church that set off the battles within the Catholic community. The chapter thus sets up the narrative that follows.Less
This chapter introduces the law of unintended consequences for understanding Catholic changes since Vatican II. The law of unintended consequences simply refers to the insight that historical actions, once undertaken, have consequences of their own, regardless of the actors who made them. This insight is especially important with regard to the Second Vatican Council, as recent debates centered on the intentions of the participants at the event in 1962–65. The chapter thus offers a distinctive point of view on what many refer to as the “Vatican II battles” over the meaning of that Council: it argues that Catholics first recognized historical change in the years after the Second Vatican Council. It was the growth of this historical consciousness within the Church that set off the battles within the Catholic community. The chapter thus sets up the narrative that follows.
James I. Porter
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780823282005
- eISBN:
- 9780823284795
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823282005.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter studies the work of the German literary critic Erich Auerbach, who wrote in response to the historical upheaval of the mid-twentieth century as a form of historical engagement. In his ...
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This chapter studies the work of the German literary critic Erich Auerbach, who wrote in response to the historical upheaval of the mid-twentieth century as a form of historical engagement. In his work, Auerbach endeavors to portray the evolution of historical consciousness in the West and the discovery of the human and social worlds it yielded. He reflects on this evolution in relating the narrative of realism. In this account, realism is not a literary genre, but rather the evolving recognition of human consciousness of its own conditions, the growing awareness, that is, that reality and the real inhere in the sensuous, the mundane, and the human. At the center of this narrative, Auerbach places Judaism and its heritage rather than Christianity. For Auerbach, history and historical consciousness first appear in the Jewish biblical stories, which provide in turn the structure and the framework for all subsequent expressions of historical thought and experience.Less
This chapter studies the work of the German literary critic Erich Auerbach, who wrote in response to the historical upheaval of the mid-twentieth century as a form of historical engagement. In his work, Auerbach endeavors to portray the evolution of historical consciousness in the West and the discovery of the human and social worlds it yielded. He reflects on this evolution in relating the narrative of realism. In this account, realism is not a literary genre, but rather the evolving recognition of human consciousness of its own conditions, the growing awareness, that is, that reality and the real inhere in the sensuous, the mundane, and the human. At the center of this narrative, Auerbach places Judaism and its heritage rather than Christianity. For Auerbach, history and historical consciousness first appear in the Jewish biblical stories, which provide in turn the structure and the framework for all subsequent expressions of historical thought and experience.
Romila Thapar
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195637984
- eISBN:
- 9780199081912
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195637984.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Indian History
This book examines the link between time and history in the Indian context. It debunks the concept of time as cyclic in early India and subsequently the denial of history. The book indicates the ...
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This book examines the link between time and history in the Indian context. It debunks the concept of time as cyclic in early India and subsequently the denial of history. The book indicates the existence of linear time in Indian texts such as genealogies, biographies, and chronicles, where time-reckoning was recorded through generations, regnal years and eras. The volume suggests that cyclic time was used in cosmological contexts while linear time was used in historical contexts. It further argues that historical consciousness existed in early India.Less
This book examines the link between time and history in the Indian context. It debunks the concept of time as cyclic in early India and subsequently the denial of history. The book indicates the existence of linear time in Indian texts such as genealogies, biographies, and chronicles, where time-reckoning was recorded through generations, regnal years and eras. The volume suggests that cyclic time was used in cosmological contexts while linear time was used in historical contexts. It further argues that historical consciousness existed in early India.
John Finnis
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199580095
- eISBN:
- 9780191729416
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199580095.003.0010
- Subject:
- Law, Philosophy of Law
The 1992 Gilson Lecture to the Mediaeval Studies Institute in Toronto, this chapter undertakes a substantial and wide-ranging critique of the theory of ‘historical’ (as opposed to ‘classical’) ...
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The 1992 Gilson Lecture to the Mediaeval Studies Institute in Toronto, this chapter undertakes a substantial and wide-ranging critique of the theory of ‘historical’ (as opposed to ‘classical’) consciousness elaborated in the later works of Bernard Lonergan and adopted by many theologians since the 1970s. The origins of the phrase, and its self-refuting deployment by Lonergan's predecessor in use of it are traced, and the ambiguities and inconsistencies in Lonergan's employment of it are shown in detail. Weaknesses in the Thomist tradition in relation to history are pointed out, and its neglect (and Lonergan's) of rationality norms is explored in relation to Hume's argument against miracles. The relevance of these problems to moral theology is the chapter's last major theme. Karl Rahner's theory of ‘changing human nature’ is challenged, and the form of coherent moral development traced with reference to marriage, usury, and religious freedom. The fall of Jerusalem and the dating of the Gospels is discussed.Less
The 1992 Gilson Lecture to the Mediaeval Studies Institute in Toronto, this chapter undertakes a substantial and wide-ranging critique of the theory of ‘historical’ (as opposed to ‘classical’) consciousness elaborated in the later works of Bernard Lonergan and adopted by many theologians since the 1970s. The origins of the phrase, and its self-refuting deployment by Lonergan's predecessor in use of it are traced, and the ambiguities and inconsistencies in Lonergan's employment of it are shown in detail. Weaknesses in the Thomist tradition in relation to history are pointed out, and its neglect (and Lonergan's) of rationality norms is explored in relation to Hume's argument against miracles. The relevance of these problems to moral theology is the chapter's last major theme. Karl Rahner's theory of ‘changing human nature’ is challenged, and the form of coherent moral development traced with reference to marriage, usury, and religious freedom. The fall of Jerusalem and the dating of the Gospels is discussed.
Yaacov Shavit
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781874774259
- eISBN:
- 9781800340879
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781874774259.003.0013
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion in the Ancient World
This chapter addresses issues in the new Jewish historical consciousness. ‘History’ in this context meant not only the knowledge of the national chronology, but the collective experience of the ...
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This chapter addresses issues in the new Jewish historical consciousness. ‘History’ in this context meant not only the knowledge of the national chronology, but the collective experience of the people, its past and future, its aspirations, hopes, and destiny. The call for a return to the Jewish past meant both changing the nature of Jewish activities and attitudes and reconstructing the people’s self-awareness; namely, the creation of a new historical consciousness. The chronicles of the Jewish people, its collective experience, faith, and destiny in history, its perceptions and myths, became the core of its self-definition and identity. Jews in modern times not only ‘returned to history’, they also related to their history as the principal manifestation of their identity. But if historical consciousness is so vital and if modern historical understanding constitutes a radical departure from the Judaeo-Christian tradition and a turning back to Greek (that is, pagan) historical conceptions, the chapter questions if the new Jewish historical consciousness be could founded on the basis of a view of history that knew nothing of Scripture and a philosophy that was trying to free itself from Scripture.Less
This chapter addresses issues in the new Jewish historical consciousness. ‘History’ in this context meant not only the knowledge of the national chronology, but the collective experience of the people, its past and future, its aspirations, hopes, and destiny. The call for a return to the Jewish past meant both changing the nature of Jewish activities and attitudes and reconstructing the people’s self-awareness; namely, the creation of a new historical consciousness. The chronicles of the Jewish people, its collective experience, faith, and destiny in history, its perceptions and myths, became the core of its self-definition and identity. Jews in modern times not only ‘returned to history’, they also related to their history as the principal manifestation of their identity. But if historical consciousness is so vital and if modern historical understanding constitutes a radical departure from the Judaeo-Christian tradition and a turning back to Greek (that is, pagan) historical conceptions, the chapter questions if the new Jewish historical consciousness be could founded on the basis of a view of history that knew nothing of Scripture and a philosophy that was trying to free itself from Scripture.
Steven Mullaney
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226547633
- eISBN:
- 9780226117096
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226117096.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
The crises of faith that traumatized Reformation Europe precipitated crises of individual and collective identity. Structures of feeling and structures of belief underwent a lasting transformation; ...
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The crises of faith that traumatized Reformation Europe precipitated crises of individual and collective identity. Structures of feeling and structures of belief underwent a lasting transformation; there was a reformation of social emotions—a necessary recalibration of community—as well as a Reformation of faith. It is an informing belief of this study that our most lasting and moving works of culture are what they are—lasting and moving—because they are so deeply rooted in the soil of their times, complexly engaged with what is at risk in the historical moment and unsettled in the collective identity. This is especially true of theater, one of the most social of the arts. As a public and performative art, theater provides public and performative cultures with a means of thinking about themselves, especially when other methods and media fail. This book argues that Elizabethan popular drama served as a form of embodied social and affective thought, challenging the first generation born into the Elizabethan Protestant Settlement—Shakespeare, Kyd, and Marlowe’s generation—to confront its fault lines and differences in social thinking, feeling, and belief. A lasting example of art at its most engaged, early modern Reformation drama was also a critical phenomenon in the way that theory, an etymologically related term for seeing, is critical: a far from harmonious and not always therapeutic way of thinking and feeling, by means of actual bodies on stage and in the audience, about the larger, traumatized social body.Less
The crises of faith that traumatized Reformation Europe precipitated crises of individual and collective identity. Structures of feeling and structures of belief underwent a lasting transformation; there was a reformation of social emotions—a necessary recalibration of community—as well as a Reformation of faith. It is an informing belief of this study that our most lasting and moving works of culture are what they are—lasting and moving—because they are so deeply rooted in the soil of their times, complexly engaged with what is at risk in the historical moment and unsettled in the collective identity. This is especially true of theater, one of the most social of the arts. As a public and performative art, theater provides public and performative cultures with a means of thinking about themselves, especially when other methods and media fail. This book argues that Elizabethan popular drama served as a form of embodied social and affective thought, challenging the first generation born into the Elizabethan Protestant Settlement—Shakespeare, Kyd, and Marlowe’s generation—to confront its fault lines and differences in social thinking, feeling, and belief. A lasting example of art at its most engaged, early modern Reformation drama was also a critical phenomenon in the way that theory, an etymologically related term for seeing, is critical: a far from harmonious and not always therapeutic way of thinking and feeling, by means of actual bodies on stage and in the audience, about the larger, traumatized social body.
Cheryl B. Welch
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198781318
- eISBN:
- 9780191695414
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198781318.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter situates Tocqueville among a set of problems and writers in post-revolutionary France in order to give the reader a sense of both the idiosyncrasy of Tocqueville's project in his own ...
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This chapter situates Tocqueville among a set of problems and writers in post-revolutionary France in order to give the reader a sense of both the idiosyncrasy of Tocqueville's project in his own environment and its political relevance. As a theorist and a writer with a cause, Tocqueville aimed to write books that would inspire leaders to direct French political culture along new paths. However, his solitary manner of argument disregarded what is considered the norm of his own time. The chapter places him in the changing patterns of his time: the search for a social science that would save the French from the results of their disastrous experiments in revolutionary politics, the rise of historical consciousness, and the widespread desire to understand a spiritualized version of human reason.Less
This chapter situates Tocqueville among a set of problems and writers in post-revolutionary France in order to give the reader a sense of both the idiosyncrasy of Tocqueville's project in his own environment and its political relevance. As a theorist and a writer with a cause, Tocqueville aimed to write books that would inspire leaders to direct French political culture along new paths. However, his solitary manner of argument disregarded what is considered the norm of his own time. The chapter places him in the changing patterns of his time: the search for a social science that would save the French from the results of their disastrous experiments in revolutionary politics, the rise of historical consciousness, and the widespread desire to understand a spiritualized version of human reason.
Ram Ben-Shalom
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781904113904
- eISBN:
- 9781800341036
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781904113904.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
The focus in this book is on the historical consciousness of the Jews of Spain and southern France in the late Middle Ages, and specifically on their perceptions of Christianity and Christian history ...
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The focus in this book is on the historical consciousness of the Jews of Spain and southern France in the late Middle Ages, and specifically on their perceptions of Christianity and Christian history and culture. The book shows that in these southern European lands Jews experienced a relatively open society that was sensitive to and knowledgeable about voices from other cultures, and that this had significant consequences for shaping Jewish historical consciousness. Among the topics discussed are what Jews knew of the significance of Rome, of Jesus and the early days of Christianity, of Church history, and of the history of the Iberian monarchies. The book demonstrates that, despite the negative stereotypes of Jewry prevalent in Christian literature, they were more influenced by their interactions with Christian society at the local level. Consequently, there was no single stereotype that dominated Jewish thought, and frequently little awareness of the two societies as representing distinct cultures. The book demonstrates that in Spain and southern France, Jews of the later Middle Ages evinced a genuine interest in history, including the history of non-Jews, and that in some cases they were deeply familiar with Christian and sometimes also classical historiography. The book enriches our understanding of medieval historiography, polemic, Jewish–Christian relations, and the breadth of interests characterizing Provencal and Spanish Jewish communities.Less
The focus in this book is on the historical consciousness of the Jews of Spain and southern France in the late Middle Ages, and specifically on their perceptions of Christianity and Christian history and culture. The book shows that in these southern European lands Jews experienced a relatively open society that was sensitive to and knowledgeable about voices from other cultures, and that this had significant consequences for shaping Jewish historical consciousness. Among the topics discussed are what Jews knew of the significance of Rome, of Jesus and the early days of Christianity, of Church history, and of the history of the Iberian monarchies. The book demonstrates that, despite the negative stereotypes of Jewry prevalent in Christian literature, they were more influenced by their interactions with Christian society at the local level. Consequently, there was no single stereotype that dominated Jewish thought, and frequently little awareness of the two societies as representing distinct cultures. The book demonstrates that in Spain and southern France, Jews of the later Middle Ages evinced a genuine interest in history, including the history of non-Jews, and that in some cases they were deeply familiar with Christian and sometimes also classical historiography. The book enriches our understanding of medieval historiography, polemic, Jewish–Christian relations, and the breadth of interests characterizing Provencal and Spanish Jewish communities.
Yoav Di Capua
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520257320
- eISBN:
- 9780520944817
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520257320.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, Middle East History
This chapter examines the multiple ways in which authoritarian pluralism shaped the historiographical marketplace. It argues that while authoritarian pluralism allowed previously marginalized groups ...
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This chapter examines the multiple ways in which authoritarian pluralism shaped the historiographical marketplace. It argues that while authoritarian pluralism allowed previously marginalized groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood to write and publish history, the government monopoly on state records curtailed the ability to ascertain the veracity of historical interpretations. The lack of historical records undermined the value of historical truthfulness and severely damaged the capacity to maintain textual hierarchy. Furthermore, given the state's continuous disregard for other values—such as accessibility, transparency, and public accountability—the professional authority of academic historians, whose agenda of modern research was highly dependent on the maintenance of such values, declined sharply. Consequently, greater sections of the historiographical field became methodologically poor, culturally provincial, and philosophically speculative. Since the 1987 conference on historiography, the various aspects of this process have come to be known as the crisis of historical consciousness.Less
This chapter examines the multiple ways in which authoritarian pluralism shaped the historiographical marketplace. It argues that while authoritarian pluralism allowed previously marginalized groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood to write and publish history, the government monopoly on state records curtailed the ability to ascertain the veracity of historical interpretations. The lack of historical records undermined the value of historical truthfulness and severely damaged the capacity to maintain textual hierarchy. Furthermore, given the state's continuous disregard for other values—such as accessibility, transparency, and public accountability—the professional authority of academic historians, whose agenda of modern research was highly dependent on the maintenance of such values, declined sharply. Consequently, greater sections of the historiographical field became methodologically poor, culturally provincial, and philosophically speculative. Since the 1987 conference on historiography, the various aspects of this process have come to be known as the crisis of historical consciousness.
Lesley Sharp
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520229501
- eISBN:
- 9780520935884
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520229501.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, African Cultural Anthropology
Youth and identity politics figure prominently in this study of personal and collective memory in Madagascar. A deeply nuanced ethnography of historical consciousness, it challenges many ...
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Youth and identity politics figure prominently in this study of personal and collective memory in Madagascar. A deeply nuanced ethnography of historical consciousness, it challenges many cross-cultural investigations of youth, for its key actors are not adults but schoolchildren. This book refutes dominant assumptions that African children are the helpless victims of postcolonial crises, incapable of organized, sustained collective thought or action. It insists instead on the political agency of Malagasy youth who, as they decipher their current predicament, offer potent, historicized critiques of colonial violence, nationalist resistance, foreign mass media, and schoolyard survival. The book asserts that autobiography and national history are inextricably linked and therefore must be read in tandem, a process that exposes how political consciousness is forged in the classroom, within the home, and on the street in Madagascar.Less
Youth and identity politics figure prominently in this study of personal and collective memory in Madagascar. A deeply nuanced ethnography of historical consciousness, it challenges many cross-cultural investigations of youth, for its key actors are not adults but schoolchildren. This book refutes dominant assumptions that African children are the helpless victims of postcolonial crises, incapable of organized, sustained collective thought or action. It insists instead on the political agency of Malagasy youth who, as they decipher their current predicament, offer potent, historicized critiques of colonial violence, nationalist resistance, foreign mass media, and schoolyard survival. The book asserts that autobiography and national history are inextricably linked and therefore must be read in tandem, a process that exposes how political consciousness is forged in the classroom, within the home, and on the street in Madagascar.
Ram Ben-Shalom
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781904113904
- eISBN:
- 9781800341036
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781904113904.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This introductory chapter considers the extent of Jewish engagement with the historiography of the non-Jewish world—particularly the Christian world—during the Middle Ages. It focuses on the Jews of ...
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This introductory chapter considers the extent of Jewish engagement with the historiography of the non-Jewish world—particularly the Christian world—during the Middle Ages. It focuses on the Jews of the Iberian peninsula and ‘Provincia’ (southern France) between the twelfth and the fifteenth centuries. The chapter briefly demonstrates that these Jews had some knowledge of Christian history and were not indifferent to it. In fact, certain circles of learned Jews regarded the history of other peoples as part of a general culture in which they too shared; hence, there were historical events that they related to and used for didactic and intellectual purposes. From here, the chapter considers whether this consciousness of a shared history extended to shared values. It also looked at what historical concepts Jewish society absorbed or otherwise shared with Christians.Less
This introductory chapter considers the extent of Jewish engagement with the historiography of the non-Jewish world—particularly the Christian world—during the Middle Ages. It focuses on the Jews of the Iberian peninsula and ‘Provincia’ (southern France) between the twelfth and the fifteenth centuries. The chapter briefly demonstrates that these Jews had some knowledge of Christian history and were not indifferent to it. In fact, certain circles of learned Jews regarded the history of other peoples as part of a general culture in which they too shared; hence, there were historical events that they related to and used for didactic and intellectual purposes. From here, the chapter considers whether this consciousness of a shared history extended to shared values. It also looked at what historical concepts Jewish society absorbed or otherwise shared with Christians.
Ram Ben-Shalom
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781904113904
- eISBN:
- 9781800341036
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781904113904.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This concluding chapter discusses the major insights of the previous chapters to present a multifaceted picture of Jewish perceptions of Christianity during the Middle Ages. The Jews held both ...
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This concluding chapter discusses the major insights of the previous chapters to present a multifaceted picture of Jewish perceptions of Christianity during the Middle Ages. The Jews held both positive and negative perceptions of the Spanish kingdom and of Christianity in general. Moreover, attraction to and repulsion from Christian culture played an important role in Jewish historical consciousness. The attraction and repulsion can be explained by the Jews' status during the Middle Ages as a minority in a mainly Christian society. Yet the chapter also reveals that the mechanisms of integration and co-operation functioned in Spain and southern France. It was a situation unique to these countries during the Middle Ages, and led to adoption, acceptance, and approval, which furthered acceptance by the majority.Less
This concluding chapter discusses the major insights of the previous chapters to present a multifaceted picture of Jewish perceptions of Christianity during the Middle Ages. The Jews held both positive and negative perceptions of the Spanish kingdom and of Christianity in general. Moreover, attraction to and repulsion from Christian culture played an important role in Jewish historical consciousness. The attraction and repulsion can be explained by the Jews' status during the Middle Ages as a minority in a mainly Christian society. Yet the chapter also reveals that the mechanisms of integration and co-operation functioned in Spain and southern France. It was a situation unique to these countries during the Middle Ages, and led to adoption, acceptance, and approval, which furthered acceptance by the majority.
Kevin Myers
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780719084805
- eISBN:
- 9781781708774
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719084805.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Social History
The third chapter, spanning the period 1981-2000, traces the ways in which newly available historical identities came to be applied in public. Municipal multiculturalism developed educational and ...
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The third chapter, spanning the period 1981-2000, traces the ways in which newly available historical identities came to be applied in public. Municipal multiculturalism developed educational and cultural policies designed to promote multi-ethnic and pluralistic cities. Ethnic difference in the present was explained by the invention of ethnic pasts and experiences that were tacitly assumed to be the basis of enduring historical identities. The resulting ethnic minority histories, which were initially championed by municipal multicultural policy and later recruited to combat social exclusion, may have effectively challenged the dominant national narrative but they also entailed their own silences and simplicities. It is argued that acrimonious debates, around what constituted ‘indigenous culture’ or ‘authentic history’, demonstrated how the historical sensibility promoted by earlier scholar activists was disappearing. In the practice of cultural difference, and in the associated elevation of ethnic histories as the source of strong identities, history was becoming a celebration of those differences and identities partly imposed by a racist society.Less
The third chapter, spanning the period 1981-2000, traces the ways in which newly available historical identities came to be applied in public. Municipal multiculturalism developed educational and cultural policies designed to promote multi-ethnic and pluralistic cities. Ethnic difference in the present was explained by the invention of ethnic pasts and experiences that were tacitly assumed to be the basis of enduring historical identities. The resulting ethnic minority histories, which were initially championed by municipal multicultural policy and later recruited to combat social exclusion, may have effectively challenged the dominant national narrative but they also entailed their own silences and simplicities. It is argued that acrimonious debates, around what constituted ‘indigenous culture’ or ‘authentic history’, demonstrated how the historical sensibility promoted by earlier scholar activists was disappearing. In the practice of cultural difference, and in the associated elevation of ethnic histories as the source of strong identities, history was becoming a celebration of those differences and identities partly imposed by a racist society.
Miranda Wilcox and John D. Young (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- June 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199348138
- eISBN:
- 9780199376735
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199348138.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
At the eve of the bicentennial anniversary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, fifteen scholars explore the relationship between Mormon historical consciousness and the belief in a ...
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At the eve of the bicentennial anniversary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, fifteen scholars explore the relationship between Mormon historical consciousness and the belief in a universal Christian apostasy. Latter-day Saints have a paradoxical relationship to the past; even as they invest their own history with sacred meaning—as the restoration of ancient truths and the fulfillment of biblical prophecies—they repudiate the eighteen centuries preceding the founding of their church as apostate distortions of the truth. Since the advent of Mormonism, Latter-day Saints have told narratives about the origin of their church using the paradigm of apostasy and restoration. Constructing a boundary between apostasy and restoration has generated a powerful and enduring binary of categorization in Mormonism that has profoundly impacted their self-perception and relations with others. Standing Apart explores how the idea of apostasy has functioned as a category to mark, define, and set apart “the other” in the development of Mormon historical consciousness and in the construction of Mormon narrative identity. The contributors trace the development of and changes in LDS narratives of apostasy within the context of Mormon history and American Protestant historiography. They offer suggestions for and predictions about ways that these narratives might be reformulated to engage with the past in generous and charitable conversation, recognizing mutual concerns stemming from shared divine inheritance and humanity while offering new models of interfaith relations, as the LDS church and Mormon culture respond to challenges and opportunities in the twenty-first century.Less
At the eve of the bicentennial anniversary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, fifteen scholars explore the relationship between Mormon historical consciousness and the belief in a universal Christian apostasy. Latter-day Saints have a paradoxical relationship to the past; even as they invest their own history with sacred meaning—as the restoration of ancient truths and the fulfillment of biblical prophecies—they repudiate the eighteen centuries preceding the founding of their church as apostate distortions of the truth. Since the advent of Mormonism, Latter-day Saints have told narratives about the origin of their church using the paradigm of apostasy and restoration. Constructing a boundary between apostasy and restoration has generated a powerful and enduring binary of categorization in Mormonism that has profoundly impacted their self-perception and relations with others. Standing Apart explores how the idea of apostasy has functioned as a category to mark, define, and set apart “the other” in the development of Mormon historical consciousness and in the construction of Mormon narrative identity. The contributors trace the development of and changes in LDS narratives of apostasy within the context of Mormon history and American Protestant historiography. They offer suggestions for and predictions about ways that these narratives might be reformulated to engage with the past in generous and charitable conversation, recognizing mutual concerns stemming from shared divine inheritance and humanity while offering new models of interfaith relations, as the LDS church and Mormon culture respond to challenges and opportunities in the twenty-first century.
Feliks Tych
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781874774693
- eISBN:
- 9781800340718
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781874774693.003.0023
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter examines the low level of historical consciousness, cultural awareness, and moral sensitivity regarding the Holocaust in Poland. It shows how the majority of Polish society up to this ...
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This chapter examines the low level of historical consciousness, cultural awareness, and moral sensitivity regarding the Holocaust in Poland. It shows how the majority of Polish society up to this very day has some peculiar mental block concerning the Holocaust. On the whole, it mainly results from historical ignorance caused by the shortcomings, or rather conscious distortions, of the communist public education system of the first 45 years after the war. But it is also the product of what the family and social milieu have said on the matter, and is influenced by the endemic antisemitism of pre-war Poland, both of a religious nature and resulting from economic competition between Poles and Jews. This residual pre-war antisemitism was strengthened through the war years by witnessing the unashamed Nazi crimes against the Jewish population.Less
This chapter examines the low level of historical consciousness, cultural awareness, and moral sensitivity regarding the Holocaust in Poland. It shows how the majority of Polish society up to this very day has some peculiar mental block concerning the Holocaust. On the whole, it mainly results from historical ignorance caused by the shortcomings, or rather conscious distortions, of the communist public education system of the first 45 years after the war. But it is also the product of what the family and social milieu have said on the matter, and is influenced by the endemic antisemitism of pre-war Poland, both of a religious nature and resulting from economic competition between Poles and Jews. This residual pre-war antisemitism was strengthened through the war years by witnessing the unashamed Nazi crimes against the Jewish population.
Hermann Kappelhoff
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231170727
- eISBN:
- 9780231539319
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231170727.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
Against the backdrop of the Second World War and the ubiquitous instrumentalization of cinema in propaganda battles, the aesthetic potential of cinema is radically reconceptualized. By examining ...
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Against the backdrop of the Second World War and the ubiquitous instrumentalization of cinema in propaganda battles, the aesthetic potential of cinema is radically reconceptualized. By examining Kracauer's theories and Visconti's history films, it is made clear that this reconceptualization primarily emphasizes a different idea of the spectator, who is no longer addressed as a mass subject, but as an individual, while the cinema seeks to provide this new spectator with the means to question the position of his or her subjectivity in history and society. In Kracauer the consciousness of a catastrophic history is manifest in the figure of the reading subject of history who, in all the powerlessness of a real individual existence, regains a space of reflection in the cinema. Here, viewers see themselves enclosed in a social reality that has lost sight of active social struggle. With a similar social diagnosis, Visconti's films open up the cinema as a space in which the sensibility of a past time is understood as a lost possibility of history.Less
Against the backdrop of the Second World War and the ubiquitous instrumentalization of cinema in propaganda battles, the aesthetic potential of cinema is radically reconceptualized. By examining Kracauer's theories and Visconti's history films, it is made clear that this reconceptualization primarily emphasizes a different idea of the spectator, who is no longer addressed as a mass subject, but as an individual, while the cinema seeks to provide this new spectator with the means to question the position of his or her subjectivity in history and society. In Kracauer the consciousness of a catastrophic history is manifest in the figure of the reading subject of history who, in all the powerlessness of a real individual existence, regains a space of reflection in the cinema. Here, viewers see themselves enclosed in a social reality that has lost sight of active social struggle. With a similar social diagnosis, Visconti's films open up the cinema as a space in which the sensibility of a past time is understood as a lost possibility of history.
Diane Ella Németh Bongers
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780198870715
- eISBN:
- 9780191913341
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198870715.003.0011
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies
The increasing call for historical perspectives in organization studies illustrates that history has become a central concern. While most studies of organizational history focus on the use of history ...
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The increasing call for historical perspectives in organization studies illustrates that history has become a central concern. While most studies of organizational history focus on the use of history by top managers, which we propose to call “tight history” (top-down), they seem to ignore the informal articulations of history that evolve from the lower levels of the organization (bottom-up), which we offer to label “loose history.” So far, scholars have largely focused on one level of analysis, but have not explored how the levels articulate with each other. This chapter investigates the activities and processes by which actors use history at both the individual and the institutional levels. Thus, our work aims to contribute to the understanding of processes by which organizations develop different forms of historical consciousness by promoting both tight and loose history, highlighting the collective dimension in both the process and the agency of historical consciousness.Less
The increasing call for historical perspectives in organization studies illustrates that history has become a central concern. While most studies of organizational history focus on the use of history by top managers, which we propose to call “tight history” (top-down), they seem to ignore the informal articulations of history that evolve from the lower levels of the organization (bottom-up), which we offer to label “loose history.” So far, scholars have largely focused on one level of analysis, but have not explored how the levels articulate with each other. This chapter investigates the activities and processes by which actors use history at both the individual and the institutional levels. Thus, our work aims to contribute to the understanding of processes by which organizations develop different forms of historical consciousness by promoting both tight and loose history, highlighting the collective dimension in both the process and the agency of historical consciousness.
Qi Wang
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780748692330
- eISBN:
- 9781474406390
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748692330.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This book provides a historically informed examination of independent moving image works made between 1990 and 2010 in China. Showcasing an evolving personal mode of narrating memory, documenting ...
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This book provides a historically informed examination of independent moving image works made between 1990 and 2010 in China. Showcasing an evolving personal mode of narrating memory, documenting reality, and inscribing subjectivity in over sixteen selected works that range from narrative film and documentary to experimental video and digital media (including a multimedia avant-garde play), this book presents a provocative portrait of the independent filmmakers as a peculiarly pained yet active group of historical subjects of the transitional, postsocialist era. Through a connected investigation of cultural and cinematic concepts including historical consciousness, personal memory, narrative, performance, subjectivity, spatiality, and the body, Wang weaves a critical narrative of the formation of a unique postsocialist cultural consciousness that enables independent cinema and media to become a highly significant and effective conduit for historical thinking in contemporary China. Covering filmmakers such as Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, Jia Zhangke, Jiang Wen, Lou Ye, Meng Jinghui, Wang Bing, Wang Guangli, Duan Jinchuan, Cui Zi'en, Shi Tou, and Tang Danhong, this book is essential reading for all students and scholars in Chinese film and culture.Less
This book provides a historically informed examination of independent moving image works made between 1990 and 2010 in China. Showcasing an evolving personal mode of narrating memory, documenting reality, and inscribing subjectivity in over sixteen selected works that range from narrative film and documentary to experimental video and digital media (including a multimedia avant-garde play), this book presents a provocative portrait of the independent filmmakers as a peculiarly pained yet active group of historical subjects of the transitional, postsocialist era. Through a connected investigation of cultural and cinematic concepts including historical consciousness, personal memory, narrative, performance, subjectivity, spatiality, and the body, Wang weaves a critical narrative of the formation of a unique postsocialist cultural consciousness that enables independent cinema and media to become a highly significant and effective conduit for historical thinking in contemporary China. Covering filmmakers such as Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, Jia Zhangke, Jiang Wen, Lou Ye, Meng Jinghui, Wang Bing, Wang Guangli, Duan Jinchuan, Cui Zi'en, Shi Tou, and Tang Danhong, this book is essential reading for all students and scholars in Chinese film and culture.
Vilém Flusser, Mark Poster, and Nancy Ann Roth
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816670222
- eISBN:
- 9781452947228
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816670222.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This chapter reflects on thinking and writing about writing, an exercise it calls “superscript.” It suggests that all writing is “right”: it is a gesture of setting up and ordering written signs. And ...
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This chapter reflects on thinking and writing about writing, an exercise it calls “superscript.” It suggests that all writing is “right”: it is a gesture of setting up and ordering written signs. And written signs are, directly or indirectly, signs for ideas. So writing is a gesture that aligns and arranges ideas. And written signs are the quotation marks of right thinking. All writing is orderly, and there is something mechanical about this ordering. One can leave writing, this ordering of signs, to machines. That is, grammar machines, artificial intelligences that take care of this order on their own and fundamentally perform not only a grammatical but also a thinking function. The chapter then discusses two kinds of thinking, namely, mythical thinking and logical thinking. It also describes writing consciousness as historical consciousness and how writing, as an ordering of written signs into rows, can be mechanized and automated. Finally, it contends that all history can be confidently left to automated machines.Less
This chapter reflects on thinking and writing about writing, an exercise it calls “superscript.” It suggests that all writing is “right”: it is a gesture of setting up and ordering written signs. And written signs are, directly or indirectly, signs for ideas. So writing is a gesture that aligns and arranges ideas. And written signs are the quotation marks of right thinking. All writing is orderly, and there is something mechanical about this ordering. One can leave writing, this ordering of signs, to machines. That is, grammar machines, artificial intelligences that take care of this order on their own and fundamentally perform not only a grammatical but also a thinking function. The chapter then discusses two kinds of thinking, namely, mythical thinking and logical thinking. It also describes writing consciousness as historical consciousness and how writing, as an ordering of written signs into rows, can be mechanized and automated. Finally, it contends that all history can be confidently left to automated machines.
Kevin Myers
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780719084805
- eISBN:
- 9781781708774
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719084805.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Social History
The emergence of multicultural Britain was one of the most profound transformations of 20th century society. This book provides both a description and an analysis of that change. It argues that ...
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The emergence of multicultural Britain was one of the most profound transformations of 20th century society. This book provides both a description and an analysis of that change. It argues that immigrants from Africa, the Caribbean and Ireland, despite deep and historic connections to Britain, were widely represented as ‘alien others’ and understood to threaten an exclusive national culture that was guaranteed by history. This was a highly selective version of the national past but it encouraged the idea that post-war immigrants had created a new ‘race problem’ that required management and intervention. The science and practice of race relations was one influential response. Despite some serious shortcomings that are examined in detail, race relations work helped to provide a space and a language in which immigrant groups responded to their rejection from the national community. In supplementary schools, language classes, in the rise of Black Studies and in a wide variety of cultural and educational projects immigrant groups explored their histories. Historical education was central to all these activities. History, and memory, helped to define the ethnic identities of multicultural Britain and provided the resources with which it became possible to imagine and discuss a future postcolonial Britain. Yet, as these narratives were mainstreamed, and as they became a central element in the municipal multiculturalism of the 1980s, they also became increasingly instrumental and descriptive. Celebratory stories of ethnic heritage, characterised by conceptual confusion and divorced from any adequate understanding of historical processes, began to replace the more critical narratives, and the historical consciousness, once championed by scholar activists.Less
The emergence of multicultural Britain was one of the most profound transformations of 20th century society. This book provides both a description and an analysis of that change. It argues that immigrants from Africa, the Caribbean and Ireland, despite deep and historic connections to Britain, were widely represented as ‘alien others’ and understood to threaten an exclusive national culture that was guaranteed by history. This was a highly selective version of the national past but it encouraged the idea that post-war immigrants had created a new ‘race problem’ that required management and intervention. The science and practice of race relations was one influential response. Despite some serious shortcomings that are examined in detail, race relations work helped to provide a space and a language in which immigrant groups responded to their rejection from the national community. In supplementary schools, language classes, in the rise of Black Studies and in a wide variety of cultural and educational projects immigrant groups explored their histories. Historical education was central to all these activities. History, and memory, helped to define the ethnic identities of multicultural Britain and provided the resources with which it became possible to imagine and discuss a future postcolonial Britain. Yet, as these narratives were mainstreamed, and as they became a central element in the municipal multiculturalism of the 1980s, they also became increasingly instrumental and descriptive. Celebratory stories of ethnic heritage, characterised by conceptual confusion and divorced from any adequate understanding of historical processes, began to replace the more critical narratives, and the historical consciousness, once championed by scholar activists.
