Koselleck's Politics of Memory : The Absurd History and the Implicated Subject Articles uri icon

publication date

  • September 2025

start page

  • 93

end page

  • 112

issue

  • 1

volume

  • 20

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 1807-9326

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 1874-656X

abstract

  • This article analyzes Koselleck’s views on the politics of memory and examines why, despite his valuable insights, these have had little impact on memory studies. After reviewing his contributions to the German debate, an attempt to reconstruct his notion of memory is made. It is then suggested that such a notion is limited by Koselleck’s focusing on his own personal primary experiences and on the German case, as well as by the fact that he considers only victims and perpetrators. Nevertheless, at the same time, such limitations contain important potentialities. Koselleck’s position as both a witness and historian, his advocation for wordless, negative aesthetics as a response to the absurdity of history and his insistence on the differentiation of victims are akin to proposals regarding multidirectional memory and the implicated subject.

subjects

  • History
  • Philosophy

keywords

  • implicated subject; michael rothberg; multidirectional memory; politics of memory; primary experiences; reinhart koselleck