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The future of the German past: transatlantic reflections for the 1990s
Die Zukunft der deutschen Vergangenheit: transatlantische Überlegungen für die neunziger Jahre
[journal article]
Abstract "The comparative reluctance of German historians to engage the postmodern challenge suggested the need for a reflection on what post-structuralist impulses might have to offer for analyzing the Central European past. In the United States the criticism voiced by Geoff Eley and David Blackbourn had al... view more
"The comparative reluctance of German historians to engage the postmodern challenge suggested the need for a reflection on what post-structuralist impulses might have to offer for analyzing the Central European past. In the United States the criticism voiced by Geoff Eley and David Blackbourn had already undercut the hegemony of the 'Sonderweg' paradigm, promoted by the 'societal historians' of the Bielefeld school which was slow to respond to feminist and everyday history approaches. The authors therefore set out to initiate a discussion about the deconstruction of 'grand narratives' about the German past, in order to create more interpretative space for stories that did not fit into the model of 'historical social science'. In the American intellectual climate this objectivist and modernist outlook seemed no longer persuasive enough, since various minorities promoted views that emphasized the constructivist character of historical understanding. Our joint programmatic essay therefore tried to open space for recovering a greater plurality of experiences." (author's abstract)... view less
Keywords
transatlantic relations; postmodernism; science of history; Federal Republic of Germany; bilateral relations; United States of America; paradigm; historiography; conception of history; post-war society; social history; Great Britain; revision (international law); narrative; understanding; transformation; ideology; deconstructivism; cultural history; linguistics; German Democratic Republic (GDR); North America
Classification
General History
Social History, Historical Social Research
Cultural Sociology, Sociology of Art, Sociology of Literature
Method
historical
Document language
English
Publication Year
2012
Page/Pages
p. 184-211
Journal
Historical Social Research, Supplement (2012) 24
Issue topic
Contemporary history as transatlantic project: the German problem 1960-2010
ISSN
0936-6784
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed