Papers by Andrey Oleynikov
Oleynikov, A.A. (2023). Event: History beyond the plot. Practices & Interpretations: A Journal of Philology, Teaching and Cultural Studies, 8 (1), 19–35, 2023
The author is looking for an opportunity to analyze the nature of a historical event, free from d... more The author is looking for an opportunity to analyze the nature of a historical event, free from deterministic and constructivist premises of scientifical thinking, and not reducible to the logic and pragmatics of the structuralist and narrativist approaches. It starts from Heidegger’s
understanding of it as “un-overpassed” (das Unumgängliche) scientific historiography and the so-called “unhidden” truth (aletheia). Since within the Heideggerian “being-historical thinking” the event reveals its derivative from the narrative structure of the “history of being”, an attempt is made to clarify the properties of the historical event with the help of its neopragmatist interpretation proposed in the works of R. Rorty. The latter sees the merit of Heidegger in the discovery of the contingency of any human project. However, Heidegger, according to Rorty, was not up to the mark of his discovery. He lacked the self-irony to refrain from presenting his own, finite and contingent, history of Western thought in terms of the “history of being” and the “event” of his truth. At the same time, Rorty does not hide his skepticism about the ability of philosophers to do without the “fateful” historical meaning. Rorty does not provide for any specificity of the historical event, reducing it without a trace in favor of private “selfcreation” carried out by means of fictional narrative. Therefore, the author finds the work “The Effect of Reality in Historical Writing” by F. Ankersmit more suitable for clarifying the contingent nature of a historical event, according to which the “non-functionality” of the details of ekphrasis can radically change the meaning of the historical narrative and even abolish the distance separating the past from the present. The text ends with a brief overview of the conceptions of historical event, which are developed in modern historical theory independently of Ankersmit, but reveal a similar view of the contingency of this event.
Who Invented “Historical Russia” and Why?, Jun 29, 2022
Political philosopher Andrey Oleynikov tells a brief history of the concept which has become one ... more Political philosopher Andrey Oleynikov tells a brief history of the concept which has become one of the key elements of Putin's propaganda
142 НЗ (2/2022), 2022
An article on the concept of historical contigency
LOGOS, VOLUME 31 #4 2021 THE TEMPORAL TURN AND THE REPOLITIZATION OF HISTORY (in RUSSIAN), 2021
Keywords: temporal turn; multiple temporality; practical past; radical historicism; constituent p... more Keywords: temporal turn; multiple temporality; practical past; radical historicism; constituent power; retroactivity; contingency.
The article maintains that the so-called temporal turn that has recently taken hold in the theory of history expands the subject matter of academic historiography (allowing it to include the previously little-studied ways of experiencing and ordering time during the eras that preceded the institutionalization of historical knowledge and the formation of classical historicism’s linear temporality), while also eliciting questions about its practical purpose and “the use and abuse of history in life.” The author suggests using Michel de Certeau’s idea from the 1980s of repoliticizing historiography as a way to gain insight into this topic.
The author finds that repoliticization adopted as a research strategy can be deployed in two modes: a) as a critique of professional historiography’s ambition to obtain maximally objective knowledge about a past which is considered fundamentally different from the present and incompatible with it; and b) as a special practiceoriented philosophy of history, which is to be called “radical historicism.” In the first use of repoliticization, the criticism is along the lines of studying the “practical past” as Hayden White advocated in his book of that title, the last one to be published before his death. In it he exposed the antagonism between the historical past that is created by professional historians and the practical past that is available to anyone
without exception. The author proposes his own approach to the concept of radical historicism, inspired by Mark Bevir’s writings as well as by the ideas of a number of famous Marxist thinkers and theorists of radical democracy. Generally speaking, radical historicism holds to a contingent ontology of the historical event (its radical novelty) and a rejection of the present state of affairs (in which the historian lives) as a “natural” or “legitimate” configuration of historical forces and processes.
Editorial Article in the Journal LOGOS, VOLUME 31 #4 2021 THE TEMPORAL TURN AND THE REPOLITIZATIO... more Editorial Article in the Journal LOGOS, VOLUME 31 #4 2021 THE TEMPORAL TURN AND THE REPOLITIZATION OF HISTORY (in Russian)
Published in the collection of articles in honor of the 60th anniversary of Konstantin Morozov: Жить историей и думать о будущем: Сборник статей и материа- лов к 60-летию доктора исторических наук К.Н. Морозова / сост. А.Ю. Морозова, А.Ю. Суслов. М., 2021. С. 145-155.
Hayden White as a Public Historian, 2019
New Literary Observer No 155 (1/2019), pp. 95-105 (in Russian)
The article attempts to look at Ha... more New Literary Observer No 155 (1/2019), pp. 95-105 (in Russian)
The article attempts to look at Hayden White’s theory
of history as a project to promote a special kind of
public history, one in conflict with professional historiography.
The meaning and content of this project is
clarified through its comparison with Michael Burawoy’s
public sociology project. While Burawoy sees
his public sociology as part of a disciplinary matrix,
the “heart” of which is occupied by professional
sociol ogy, White’s public history does not have any
respect for professional historiography and is aimed
at its complete dismantling.
Shagi / Steps, 4(3), 9–25. (In Russian), Sep 2018
Despite the central place occupied by the concept of anachronism in the modern historical conscio... more Despite the central place occupied by the concept of anachronism in the modern historical consciousness, it rarely becomes an object of historical and cultural research. This is because a historian who decides to tackle this topic inevitably has to go beyond the limits of his discipline and learn to see it from the outside. In this paper, an attempt is made to propose theoretical grounds that could facilitate such reflection. The author believes that the revolution in the theory of history, which has gained the label the “linguistic turn”, as well as the concept of “politics of time”, first developed in theoretical anthropology, may suitably serve in that capacity. On the basis of works by some contemporary intellectual historians the author tries to demonstrate the advantages that a research position built into the perspective of the “linguistic turn” and “politics of time” can provide for understanding the historiographic culture of the early modern period.
An Editorial Article for №2 (2016) Politics of time (in Russian).
Translated by Kristina Sarycheva. Published in Sociology of Power №2, 2016
Table of contents of The Special Issue of Journal "Sociology of Power" (№2, 2016) dedicated to th... more Table of contents of The Special Issue of Journal "Sociology of Power" (№2, 2016) dedicated to the Subject of Politics of Time http://socofpower.ranepa.ru/2-2016-politics-of-time/
An intoduction into the history of Russian unions of university professors (in Russian)
A Reflection on The Subject of Historical Experience
Analysis of Society Must Be Defended - the course of lectures delivered by Michel Foucault at Col... more Analysis of Society Must Be Defended - the course of lectures delivered by Michel Foucault at Collège de France in 1975-76 (in Russian)
Book Reviews by Andrey Oleynikov
The Review of Fasolt C. Past Sense: Studies in Medieval and Early Modern European History. Leiden... more The Review of Fasolt C. Past Sense: Studies in Medieval and Early Modern European History. Leiden: Brill, 2014. — XVIII, 658 p. In Russian.
The review of White H. The Practical Past. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2014 & Pa... more The review of White H. The Practical Past. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2014 & Paul H. Key Issues in Historical Theory. L.: Routledge, 2015. In Russian.
The Review of BREAKING UP TIME: Negotiating the Borders between Present, Past and Future? / Eds. ... more The Review of BREAKING UP TIME: Negotiating the Borders between Present, Past and Future? / Eds. C. Lorenz, B. Bevernage. — Göttingen; Bristol (CT): Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2013. — 274 p. — (Schriftenreihe der FRIAS School of History. Vol. 7). S c h i f fma n Z.S. THE BIRTH OF THE PAST. — Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins UP, 2011. — XVIII, 316 p. (in Russian)
The review of four books on the critical state of the contemporary university: Nixon J. HIGHER ED... more The review of four books on the critical state of the contemporary university: Nixon J. HIGHER EDUCATION AND THE PUBLIC GOOD: Imagining the University. L.; N.Y.: Continuum, 2011. XIV, 152 p.; Docherty Th. FOR THE UNIVERSITY: Democracy and the Future of the Institution. L.; N.Y.: Bloomsbury, 2011. X, 198 p.; Collini S.WHAT ARE UNIVERSITIES FOR? L.: Penguin, 2012. 240 p.; Nelson C. NO UNIVERSITY IS AN ISLAND: Saving Academic Freedom. N.Y.; L.: New York University Press, 2010. X, 289 p. (in Russian)
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Papers by Andrey Oleynikov
understanding of it as “un-overpassed” (das Unumgängliche) scientific historiography and the so-called “unhidden” truth (aletheia). Since within the Heideggerian “being-historical thinking” the event reveals its derivative from the narrative structure of the “history of being”, an attempt is made to clarify the properties of the historical event with the help of its neopragmatist interpretation proposed in the works of R. Rorty. The latter sees the merit of Heidegger in the discovery of the contingency of any human project. However, Heidegger, according to Rorty, was not up to the mark of his discovery. He lacked the self-irony to refrain from presenting his own, finite and contingent, history of Western thought in terms of the “history of being” and the “event” of his truth. At the same time, Rorty does not hide his skepticism about the ability of philosophers to do without the “fateful” historical meaning. Rorty does not provide for any specificity of the historical event, reducing it without a trace in favor of private “selfcreation” carried out by means of fictional narrative. Therefore, the author finds the work “The Effect of Reality in Historical Writing” by F. Ankersmit more suitable for clarifying the contingent nature of a historical event, according to which the “non-functionality” of the details of ekphrasis can radically change the meaning of the historical narrative and even abolish the distance separating the past from the present. The text ends with a brief overview of the conceptions of historical event, which are developed in modern historical theory independently of Ankersmit, but reveal a similar view of the contingency of this event.
The article maintains that the so-called temporal turn that has recently taken hold in the theory of history expands the subject matter of academic historiography (allowing it to include the previously little-studied ways of experiencing and ordering time during the eras that preceded the institutionalization of historical knowledge and the formation of classical historicism’s linear temporality), while also eliciting questions about its practical purpose and “the use and abuse of history in life.” The author suggests using Michel de Certeau’s idea from the 1980s of repoliticizing historiography as a way to gain insight into this topic.
The author finds that repoliticization adopted as a research strategy can be deployed in two modes: a) as a critique of professional historiography’s ambition to obtain maximally objective knowledge about a past which is considered fundamentally different from the present and incompatible with it; and b) as a special practiceoriented philosophy of history, which is to be called “radical historicism.” In the first use of repoliticization, the criticism is along the lines of studying the “practical past” as Hayden White advocated in his book of that title, the last one to be published before his death. In it he exposed the antagonism between the historical past that is created by professional historians and the practical past that is available to anyone
without exception. The author proposes his own approach to the concept of radical historicism, inspired by Mark Bevir’s writings as well as by the ideas of a number of famous Marxist thinkers and theorists of radical democracy. Generally speaking, radical historicism holds to a contingent ontology of the historical event (its radical novelty) and a rejection of the present state of affairs (in which the historian lives) as a “natural” or “legitimate” configuration of historical forces and processes.
The article attempts to look at Hayden White’s theory
of history as a project to promote a special kind of
public history, one in conflict with professional historiography.
The meaning and content of this project is
clarified through its comparison with Michael Burawoy’s
public sociology project. While Burawoy sees
his public sociology as part of a disciplinary matrix,
the “heart” of which is occupied by professional
sociol ogy, White’s public history does not have any
respect for professional historiography and is aimed
at its complete dismantling.
Book Reviews by Andrey Oleynikov
understanding of it as “un-overpassed” (das Unumgängliche) scientific historiography and the so-called “unhidden” truth (aletheia). Since within the Heideggerian “being-historical thinking” the event reveals its derivative from the narrative structure of the “history of being”, an attempt is made to clarify the properties of the historical event with the help of its neopragmatist interpretation proposed in the works of R. Rorty. The latter sees the merit of Heidegger in the discovery of the contingency of any human project. However, Heidegger, according to Rorty, was not up to the mark of his discovery. He lacked the self-irony to refrain from presenting his own, finite and contingent, history of Western thought in terms of the “history of being” and the “event” of his truth. At the same time, Rorty does not hide his skepticism about the ability of philosophers to do without the “fateful” historical meaning. Rorty does not provide for any specificity of the historical event, reducing it without a trace in favor of private “selfcreation” carried out by means of fictional narrative. Therefore, the author finds the work “The Effect of Reality in Historical Writing” by F. Ankersmit more suitable for clarifying the contingent nature of a historical event, according to which the “non-functionality” of the details of ekphrasis can radically change the meaning of the historical narrative and even abolish the distance separating the past from the present. The text ends with a brief overview of the conceptions of historical event, which are developed in modern historical theory independently of Ankersmit, but reveal a similar view of the contingency of this event.
The article maintains that the so-called temporal turn that has recently taken hold in the theory of history expands the subject matter of academic historiography (allowing it to include the previously little-studied ways of experiencing and ordering time during the eras that preceded the institutionalization of historical knowledge and the formation of classical historicism’s linear temporality), while also eliciting questions about its practical purpose and “the use and abuse of history in life.” The author suggests using Michel de Certeau’s idea from the 1980s of repoliticizing historiography as a way to gain insight into this topic.
The author finds that repoliticization adopted as a research strategy can be deployed in two modes: a) as a critique of professional historiography’s ambition to obtain maximally objective knowledge about a past which is considered fundamentally different from the present and incompatible with it; and b) as a special practiceoriented philosophy of history, which is to be called “radical historicism.” In the first use of repoliticization, the criticism is along the lines of studying the “practical past” as Hayden White advocated in his book of that title, the last one to be published before his death. In it he exposed the antagonism between the historical past that is created by professional historians and the practical past that is available to anyone
without exception. The author proposes his own approach to the concept of radical historicism, inspired by Mark Bevir’s writings as well as by the ideas of a number of famous Marxist thinkers and theorists of radical democracy. Generally speaking, radical historicism holds to a contingent ontology of the historical event (its radical novelty) and a rejection of the present state of affairs (in which the historian lives) as a “natural” or “legitimate” configuration of historical forces and processes.
The article attempts to look at Hayden White’s theory
of history as a project to promote a special kind of
public history, one in conflict with professional historiography.
The meaning and content of this project is
clarified through its comparison with Michael Burawoy’s
public sociology project. While Burawoy sees
his public sociology as part of a disciplinary matrix,
the “heart” of which is occupied by professional
sociol ogy, White’s public history does not have any
respect for professional historiography and is aimed
at its complete dismantling.