Against Periodization

Koselleck's Theory of Multiple Temporalities

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4495412
AutoresHelge Jordheim (0000-0003-4452-8715, University of Oslo, autor correspondente)
Ano2012
Volume51
Fascículo2
Páginas151-171
Data de publicação2012-05-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoHistory and Theory (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0018-2656 • E-ISSN: 1468-2303
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1468-2303.2012.00619.x
OpenAlexW2055348171
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas82

In this essay I intend to flesh out and discuss what I consider to be the groundbreaking contribution by the German historian and theorist of history Reinhart Koselleck to postwar historiography: his theory of historical times. I begin by discussing the view, so prominent in the Anglophone context, that Koselleck's idea of the plurality of historical times can be grasped only in terms of a plurality of historical periods in chronological succession, and hence, that Koselleck's theory of historical times is in reality a theory of periodization. Against this interpretation, to be found in works by Kathleen Davis, Peter Osborne, and Lynn Hunt, among others, I will argue that not only is Koselleck's theory of historical times, or, with a more phenomenlogical turn of phrase, his theory of multiple temporalities, not a theory of periodization, it is, furthermore, a theory developed to defy periodization. Hence, at the core of Koselleck's work is the attempt to replace the idea of linear, homogeneous time with a more complex, heterogeneous, and multilayered notion of temporality. In this essay I will demonstrate how this shift is achieved by means of three dichotomies: between natural and historical, extralinguistic and intralinguistic, and diachronic and synchronic time

Conceptual history · Context (archaeology) · Dichotomy · Epistemology · Historiography · Periodization · Politics · Sociology · Temporalities · Temporality · Theology · Central European national history · History · History, Culture, and Diplomacy · Law · Philosophy · Philosophy, History, and Historiography