Abstract
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 230-+ |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis |
| Volume | 119 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Publication status | Published - 2006 |
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- 'Presence' of the past in the presence (Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Eelco Runia)Final publisher's version, 13.4 MBLicence: Unspecified
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In: Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, Vol. 119, No. 2, 2006, p. 230-+.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review
TY - JOUR
T1 - 'Presence' of the past in the presence (Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Eelco Runia)
AU - ter Schure, Leon
PY - 2006
Y1 - 2006
N2 - In recent writings historian Eelco Runia (Groningen) and literary theorist Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht (Stanford) have introduced the notion of presence, a new and promising way of thinking about history. Although there are differences between the two authors, both think of presence as the antithesis of 'meaning'. Runia applies the notion to philosophy of history, in an attempt to go beyond the theory of representation. For him presence is 'the unrepresented way the past is present in the here and now' and can be accounted for by the trope of metonymy. Gumbrecht uses his notion of presence to criticize the epistemological tradition in modern philosophy. By focusing too much on interpretation and meaning, modern philosophy has neglected the presence side of our existence: our bodily and spacial relationship with the world and its objects. Runia as well as Gumbrecht focuses on the way the object of study (the past) can communicate itself to the subject (the historian). In this essay I argue that the concept of presence has its predecessors in the history of philosophy. The still developing notion can, for example, profit a great deal from Walter Benjamin's theory of modern experience and his proposal of thinking history from its unsightly discontinuity'. Furthermore, as Gumbrecht points out, the presence of the past can be made clear by referring to Aristotelian metaphysics. Finally, I point to some similarities between presence and Heidegger's analysis of the origin of the work of art. By means of a study of a painting of a pair of peasant shoes by Van Gogh, Heidegger shows how truth can be established within the work itself.
AB - In recent writings historian Eelco Runia (Groningen) and literary theorist Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht (Stanford) have introduced the notion of presence, a new and promising way of thinking about history. Although there are differences between the two authors, both think of presence as the antithesis of 'meaning'. Runia applies the notion to philosophy of history, in an attempt to go beyond the theory of representation. For him presence is 'the unrepresented way the past is present in the here and now' and can be accounted for by the trope of metonymy. Gumbrecht uses his notion of presence to criticize the epistemological tradition in modern philosophy. By focusing too much on interpretation and meaning, modern philosophy has neglected the presence side of our existence: our bodily and spacial relationship with the world and its objects. Runia as well as Gumbrecht focuses on the way the object of study (the past) can communicate itself to the subject (the historian). In this essay I argue that the concept of presence has its predecessors in the history of philosophy. The still developing notion can, for example, profit a great deal from Walter Benjamin's theory of modern experience and his proposal of thinking history from its unsightly discontinuity'. Furthermore, as Gumbrecht points out, the presence of the past can be made clear by referring to Aristotelian metaphysics. Finally, I point to some similarities between presence and Heidegger's analysis of the origin of the work of art. By means of a study of a painting of a pair of peasant shoes by Van Gogh, Heidegger shows how truth can be established within the work itself.
M3 - Article
SN - 0040-7518
VL - 119
SP - 230-+
JO - Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis
JF - Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis
IS - 2
ER -