Memory, hope and post-historical politics in multicultural horizons

FRANCISCO NAISHTAT, SUSANA GONÇALVES

The Challenges of Diversity and Intercultural Encounters

Routledge

Lugar: Nueva York; Año: 2013; p. 217 - 228

ABSTRACT In this dissertation I use the term ?post-history? in a nominal sense, without ontologically committing to any of the established theses surrounding the ?end of history? (Niethammer, 2002). With this term I simply wish to indicate that this analysis of how memory and hope are connected is restricted to the conceptual scope that becomes clear when historiography draws from the crisis and the termination philosophy of history, which was characteristic of high modernity. When speaking here of ?post-history? we do not therefore presuppose that what appears after high modernity is not history, but simply that the contemporary régime of historicity (Hartog, 2003) ?in other words language, syntax, the structure of history?s senses and meanings - has undergone a fracture. For lack of a better name, I use the name ?post-history? to refer to history associated with this fracture; fully aware of the abuse of the hackneyed prefix ?post?, as contemporary literature often does in the endeavor to indicate a development in which the modern is altered.