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Tagged: metaphors

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#English / KOMPOSITA / Theory of History (Re)read

Burning Memory. On Koselleck’s Use of Lava as Metaphor

Koselleck 100

Lucila Svampa – We know Koselleck’s work primarily for its strong legacy in conceptual history and for his theory of historical times. However, a few years ago, research on his contributions to understanding memory began to gain impetus. What were his main contributions in this field, and why were they so controversial? This short article looks to better situate his understanding of memory, drawing attention to his peculiar use of lava as a metaphor.

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#English / KOMPOSITA / Theory of History (Re)read

Horizon

Koselleck 100

Javier Fernández-Sebastian – In the modern world, we are more than used to considering the horizon as the trope par excellence for the future. Used progressively since the nineteenth century by philosophers, historians, and theorists, and vulgarised by journalists and businessmen, it has almost ceased to be perceived as a metaphor.

#English / Theory of History in Media

The life span of a light bulb. Thoughts on the preservation and decay of a changing object

Marcus Wystub – Is a new light bulb on its way to replace the broken one seen in the photograph of the sewing room at the Wäschefabrik Museum in Bielefeld? The lamps in the background apparently provided the workstations of the seamstresses with light until the 1980s. A look at the room suggests they were part of and a prerequisite for the process of producing linen and clothing. Today, in contrast, they lit up the room for me as a museum visitor.
Beitrag in Deutsch Post in English

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#English / KOMPOSITA / Theory of History Wide Open

Stones and Jinns. Time between Layers of Sedimentation and Hauntology

Koselleck 100

Margrit Pernau – Koselleck’s metaphor of the layers of sedimentation (Zeitschichten) was and continues to be one of his most productive ideas. Instead of assuming a neat division between the past and the present, this metaphor allows to explore ways in which the past retains its presence in the present. Like in the process of sedimentation – Koselleck here draws on geological knowledge – older layers of history never disappear, but get overlaid by newer deposits. Koselleck’s metaphor has repeatedly translated into visuals.

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#English / KOMPOSITA / Theory of History (Re)read

Reinhart Koselleck’s metaphorical language: an application of historical semantics to one of its founding figures

Koselleck 100

Willibald Steinmetz – Anyone who reads Koselleck’s texts in the original German will be aware of two striking features in the ways he uses language: first, a frequent recourse to certain metaphorical expressions, and second, an extensive use of a limited number of rather peculiar words, or, contrariwise, of familiar words in an idiosyncratic way. Not a few of those idiosyncratic expressions, especially the verbs, are used by Koselleck in ways that lay bare the hidden metaphorical resonances they contain.

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#English / KOMPOSITA

KOMPOSITA: Contributions to Reinhart Koselleck’s “Space of Resonance”

Koselleck 100

Bettina Brandt, Jonathon Catlin, Jana Kristin Hoffmann & Lisa Regazzoni – The historian Reinhart Koselleck would have turned one hundred on April 23, 2023. The work of Koselleck, who died in 2006, is now in vogue in the humanities and historical social sciences, both in Germany and internationally. The fact that Koselleck addressed a basic question of historical scholarship with his contributions to a theory of historical time is a likely factor in this successful reception, as is the diversity of his oeuvre, in which new facets can continually be discovered, and which invites surprising readings.

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#English / Theory of History Wide Open

Are We All Time-Travelling Detectives? Why Metaphors Matter in Talking About the Work Historians Do (Part 2)

Charlotte Lerg – I will argue that metaphors come with added meaning and related implications, it matters how we describe the work of historians. It matters methodologically and theoretically, it matters politically and it matters for the public perception of the discipline. These four dimensions cannot always be separated.
Read part 1 here

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#English / Theory of History Wide Open

Figuratively Speaking. Why Metaphors Matter in Talking About the Work Historians Do (Part 1)

Charlotte Lerg – I like a good metaphor. That said, some of my colleagues who have written texts with me, might be inclined to say, I like metaphors a little too much. But we all speak figuratively on a regular basis, often without thinking twice about it. While we may consider metaphors stylistic devices that primarily fulfil an aesthetic function in literary prose or poetry, they are, in fact, an inevitable element of scientific and academic language, also in history.
Read part 2 here