Periodic Reporting for period 3 - BETWEEN THE TIMES (“Between the Times”: Embattled Temporalities and Political Imagination in Interwar Europe)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2021-06-01 do 2022-11-30
Teleology and progressivism have never been systematically defined political concepts, yet they dominate the political poetics for some of our most cherished pursuits, including democratization, Europeanisation, and emancipatory movements. In the past decade, however, Europe’s present – the reality of enduring and agonizing crises – has tuned the tension between our tenaciously progressivist “horizon of expectation” and the newly disillusioned “space of experience” close to the point of exhaustion.In this time of a radical need for a redefinition of Europe’s self-identity, progressivist public regimes of historicity are failing to deliver their elusive promise. Yet what are – if any – the alternative historicities for reframing our political horizons? The project seeks to answer this question both theoretically and historically.
Historically, one of the guiding aims of the project is to offer a new intellectual history of the political imagination in the interwar period that places the demise of progressivism and the emerging anti-teleological visions of time at the center of some of its most innovative ethical, political and methodological pursuits. Here, we present a distinctively cross-disciplinary (theology, jurisprudence, classical studies, literary theory, linguistics, sociology, philosophy) and European narrative of the reinvention of temporality in order to capture its multiple ramifications. The second main aim is to challenge the sufficiency of the conventional focus on one or two, at most three (usually “Western” European) countries in interwar intellectual history by exploring these themes across national contexts (France, Britain, Germany), including in Central and Eastern Europe (Russia, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Poland, Hungary). The third aim is to trace the eclectic legacies of interwar novel experiences and concepts of temporality in the philosophical, methodological and political dicta of post-1945 thought. We aim to unearth some of these genealogies, as well as explore the ways in which these alternative historicities and their legacies can illuminate the present crisis of progressivism.
Historically, one of the guiding aims of the project is to offer a new intellectual history of the political imagination in the interwar period that places the demise of progressivism and the emerging anti-teleological visions of time at the center of some of its most innovative ethical, political and methodological pursuits. Here, we present a distinctively cross-disciplinary (theology, jurisprudence, classical studies, literary theory, linguistics, sociology, philosophy) and European narrative of the reinvention of temporality in order to capture its multiple ramifications. The second main aim is to challenge the sufficiency of the conventional focus on one or two, at most three (usually “Western” European) countries in interwar intellectual history by exploring these themes across national contexts (France, Britain, Germany), including in Central and Eastern Europe (Russia, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Poland, Hungary). The third aim is to trace the eclectic legacies of interwar novel experiences and concepts of temporality in the philosophical, methodological and political dicta of post-1945 thought. We aim to unearth some of these genealogies, as well as explore the ways in which these alternative historicities and their legacies can illuminate the present crisis of progressivism.
In the period June 2018-November 2020, the first most significant achievement is the clustering of knowledge and research networks on modern temporalities and transnational history of early 20th century political thought, especially in Central and Eastern Europe. First, we have a strikingly multi-disciplinary (philosophers, historians, literary and political theorists, translation scholars), international (and multilingual), and methodologically diverse research team to explore interwar intellectual history. Also, we have built collaborations with other scholars and networks who are working in these fields. A significant forum for this clustering was the project’s first international workshop on interwar European intellectual history. It brought together researchers from several disciplines and countries, and has resulted not only in research publications, but also visiting researchers coming to Tallinn for a longer period, and visiting senior experts contributing to our project’s summer school in 2021.
The second most significant achievement is that we have already published the first research results in notable papers, including international peer reviewed academic journals. While all the publications contribute to the achievement of the project’s research aims, we want to particularly highlight for their highest quality and contribution to the field of research:
1. Monticelli, Daniele (2020). Thinking the New after the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Juri Lotman’s Dialogism of History. Rethinking History, 24 (2): 184-208.
2. Keedus, Liisi, “Time Outside History. Politics and Ontology in Franz Rosenzweig’s and Mircea Eliade’s Reimagined Temporalities”, Rethinking Historical Time. New Approaches to Presentism, Bloomsbury, 2019, p. 101-115.
3. Monticelli, Daniele; Peiker, Piret; Mits, Krista (2018). “Jamaicast Pariiisi ning sealt Tartusse tagasi. Lydia Koidula maailmavaatest ja mugandamisstrateegiatest tema saksa eeskujude valguses.” Keel ja Kirjandus 12, pp. 915-941 – that was awarded the prize for best literature research article of the year by the journal and in the same category by the Estonian Cultural Endowment. The article focuses on the innovative dynamic and relational vision of history of the Estonian author, journalist and political activist Lydia Koidula (1843-1886) that was developed in her fictional works depicting the French Revolution and the anti-slavery revolutions in the Caribbean.
The results of these papers have also been presented at several academic workshops and conferences, as well as events targeted at the broader public.
The third most significant achievement has been intense communication with and interest from the broader general public. Here we want to highlight contributions to 1) Estonian public broadcasting science programme, “Uudishimu tippkeskus”, an episode on intellectual history, where the PI spoke about ideologies of progress; 2) Estonian public broadcasting radio programme on science where the PI spoke about public conceptions of history and progress; 3) Project's postdotoral researcher's contribution to Artishok Biennial, an experimental exhibition/seminar on art, fashion and nationalism; 4) A podcast by our postdoctoral and doctoral researchers, “Revolution and violence: views from the 20th century” in the Filostsoon series at Tallinn University.
The second most significant achievement is that we have already published the first research results in notable papers, including international peer reviewed academic journals. While all the publications contribute to the achievement of the project’s research aims, we want to particularly highlight for their highest quality and contribution to the field of research:
1. Monticelli, Daniele (2020). Thinking the New after the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Juri Lotman’s Dialogism of History. Rethinking History, 24 (2): 184-208.
2. Keedus, Liisi, “Time Outside History. Politics and Ontology in Franz Rosenzweig’s and Mircea Eliade’s Reimagined Temporalities”, Rethinking Historical Time. New Approaches to Presentism, Bloomsbury, 2019, p. 101-115.
3. Monticelli, Daniele; Peiker, Piret; Mits, Krista (2018). “Jamaicast Pariiisi ning sealt Tartusse tagasi. Lydia Koidula maailmavaatest ja mugandamisstrateegiatest tema saksa eeskujude valguses.” Keel ja Kirjandus 12, pp. 915-941 – that was awarded the prize for best literature research article of the year by the journal and in the same category by the Estonian Cultural Endowment. The article focuses on the innovative dynamic and relational vision of history of the Estonian author, journalist and political activist Lydia Koidula (1843-1886) that was developed in her fictional works depicting the French Revolution and the anti-slavery revolutions in the Caribbean.
The results of these papers have also been presented at several academic workshops and conferences, as well as events targeted at the broader public.
The third most significant achievement has been intense communication with and interest from the broader general public. Here we want to highlight contributions to 1) Estonian public broadcasting science programme, “Uudishimu tippkeskus”, an episode on intellectual history, where the PI spoke about ideologies of progress; 2) Estonian public broadcasting radio programme on science where the PI spoke about public conceptions of history and progress; 3) Project's postdotoral researcher's contribution to Artishok Biennial, an experimental exhibition/seminar on art, fashion and nationalism; 4) A podcast by our postdoctoral and doctoral researchers, “Revolution and violence: views from the 20th century” in the Filostsoon series at Tallinn University.
The state of art is furthered by all project members in their individual research in a variety of ways, while here we list only some of the more theoretically framed contributions:
- The starting aim to reconstruct intellectual history comparatively and cross-nationally, especially the aim to explore in more detail Eastern European intellectual history, has proven novel and fruitful. We have learned in the process that existing research on this is very meagre, and we are working on partly filling this gap, as well as starting new collaborations to expand this work.
- While it is uncontested that in the ideological 20th century ideas played a significant political role, there has been less clarity on how to specifically to connect ‘ideas’ to ‘politics’. One of the experiments of the project is to explore intellectual history through groupings rather than individual thinkers. We have preliminarily seen that because intellectual groupings were often formed exactly to address as broad a public as possible, they become a relevant locus where this ‘missing’ connection took place and might hence be retraced.
- Our preliminary research has also disclosed the hitherto only passingly explored connections between the earlier artistic avant-garde and interwar innovations in scholarship across disciplines – and we will be further studying these connections.
- The starting aim to reconstruct intellectual history comparatively and cross-nationally, especially the aim to explore in more detail Eastern European intellectual history, has proven novel and fruitful. We have learned in the process that existing research on this is very meagre, and we are working on partly filling this gap, as well as starting new collaborations to expand this work.
- While it is uncontested that in the ideological 20th century ideas played a significant political role, there has been less clarity on how to specifically to connect ‘ideas’ to ‘politics’. One of the experiments of the project is to explore intellectual history through groupings rather than individual thinkers. We have preliminarily seen that because intellectual groupings were often formed exactly to address as broad a public as possible, they become a relevant locus where this ‘missing’ connection took place and might hence be retraced.
- Our preliminary research has also disclosed the hitherto only passingly explored connections between the earlier artistic avant-garde and interwar innovations in scholarship across disciplines – and we will be further studying these connections.