Papers by Kenan Van de Mieroop-Al Bahrani
Analysing Historical Narratives
Analysing Historical Narratives
History and Theory, 2019
Much has been said about what philosophy of history should be. This bibliometric assessment of re... more Much has been said about what philosophy of history should be. This bibliometric assessment of research in the philosophy of history examines what scholars in this field have actually produced. The study covers a dataset-a subsection of the bibliography of the International Network for Theory of History-of 13,953 books, articles, book chapters, dissertations, and other scholarly publications, encompassing materials written in seven different languages published between 1945 and 2014. This material was classified according to a multilayered system of taxonomy consisting of keywords representative of themes discussed in the field. Separate quantitative analyses were made to elucidate characteristics about the publication outputs in the field in the different language groups. Changes in paradigm, often referred to as "turns" or "trends," have been mapped in this study, according to a quantitative analysis of the most recurrent keywords within a five-year interval, which give an indication of the most debated themes in each period. *Religion/theology/secularization* is the most frequent keyword during the period 1945 to 1969, followed by *Marxism/historical-materialism* 1 from 1970 to 1984, in what can be considered a second period of the field. Although many of the key publications of the linguistic turn were written within this second period, our dataset shows that it is not until the third period (1985-2014) that their writing goes on to influence other authors in the field.
History and Theory, 2016
This article takes the Nietzschean dictum that history must “serve life” as a point of departure ... more This article takes the Nietzschean dictum that history must “serve life” as a point of departure for an analysis of the American institution of Black History Month. Many continue to place great faith in the power of historical education to solve problems of race in America. Against this common-sense view, this article argues that the excessive historicization of the problem of racism is at least as oppressive as forgetting. The black history propagated during this month has mostly been a celebration that it is history and thus a thing of the past. The article makes the claim that it is precisely a surfeit of black history that has encouraged the view that racism is vanishing in the river of time. The constant demand to view American racism through a historical frame has led to the perception that racism is a problem that must be historically transcended rather than solved. In other words, it is through the widespread dissemination of black history during Black History Month and elsewhere that the historical category of the post-racial era has been constituted. The postracial era is not, as is so often claimed, a denial of historical context. On the contrary, it is an assertion that the horrors of racist discrimination were once real but are now over and done with.
Rethinking history, Mar 16, 2016
AbstractPierre Nora’s account of the ‘age of commemoration’ has been extremely influential in sha... more AbstractPierre Nora’s account of the ‘age of commemoration’ has been extremely influential in shaping the way that memory is understood in France as well as in other countries. But what those who adopt Nora’s historical account of the rise of memory often overlook, is that the story of the ‘age of commemoration’ is a narrative construct. This article argues that Nora’s historical explanation of the rise of memory constitutes memory as an historical object, and explains it through emplotment. Nora has constructed a story of crisis in which individual memories stand as ‘symptoms’ of, and reactions to, the ‘acceleration of history’. The significance of memory is supposed to lie in what it tells us about the times in which ‘we’ live. Memory is thus construed as a panicked reaction to historical changes, and the manifestation of an existential crisis in France. Nora’s account of memory is widely referred to in academic as well as public discussions on the memories of minority groups in France. These memory mov...
Journal of Contemporary Iraq & the Arab World
Naming atrocity: Theater of Operations: The Gulf Wars 1991–2011, curated by Peter Eleey and Ruba ... more Naming atrocity: Theater of Operations: The Gulf Wars 1991–2011, curated by Peter Eleey and Ruba Katrib MoMA PS1, New York, 3 November 2019–1 March 2020
Journal of the Philosophy of History, 2014
Journal of the Philosophy of History, 2014
History and Theory, 2019
Much has been said about what philosophy of history should be. This bibliometric assessment of re... more Much has been said about what philosophy of history should be. This bibliometric assessment of research in the philosophy of history examines what scholars in this field have actually produced. The study covers a dataset-a subsection of the bibliography of the International Network for Theory of History-of 13,953 books, articles, book chapters, dissertations, and other scholarly publications, encompassing materials written in seven different languages published between 1945 and 2014. This material was classified according to a multilayered system of taxonomy consisting of keywords representative of themes discussed in the field. Separate quantitative analyses were made to elucidate characteristics about the publication outputs in the field in the different language groups. Changes in paradigm, often referred to as "turns" or "trends," have been mapped in this study, according to a quantitative analysis of the most recurrent keywords within a five-year interval, which give an indication of
Abstract: Pierre Nora's account of the 'age of commemoration' has been extremely influential in s... more Abstract: Pierre Nora's account of the 'age of commemoration' has been extremely influential in shaping the way that memory is understood in France as well as in other countries. But what those who adopt Nora's historical account of the rise of memory often overlook, is that the story of the 'age of commemoration' is a narrative construct. This article argues that Nora's historical explanation of the rise of memory constitutes memory as an historical object, and explains it through emplotment. Nora has constructed a story of crisis in which individual memories stand as 'symptoms' of, and reactions to, the 'acceleration of history'. The significance of memory is supposed to lie in what it tells us about the times in which 'we' live. Memory is thus construed as a panicked reaction to historical changes, and the manifestation of an existential crisis in France. Nora's account of memory is widely referred to in academic as well as public discussions on the memories of minority groups in France. These memory movements are viewed in the historical context of the 'age of commemoration'. But this historicization functions to circumscribe their meaning: emplotted into the story of the 'age of commemoration' minority memories are rendered as symptoms of a macrocosmic malaise. The content of their discourse is thereby marginalized, ignored or deemed insignificant.
This article takes the Nietzschean dictum that history must " serve life " as a point of departur... more This article takes the Nietzschean dictum that history must " serve life " as a point of departure for an analysis of the American institution of Black History Month. Many continue to place great faith in the power of historical education to solve problems of race in America. Against this common-sense view, this article argues that the excessive historicization of the problem of racism is at least as oppressive as forgetting. The black history propagated during this month has mostly been a celebration that it is history and thus a thing of the past. The article makes the claim that it is precisely a surfeit of black history that has encouraged the view that racism is vanishing in the river of time. The constant demand to view American racism through a historical frame has led to the perception that racism is a problem that must be historically transcended rather than solved. In other words, it is through the widespread dissemination of black history during Black History Month and elsewhere that the historical category of the post-racial era has been constituted. The postracial era is not, as is so often claimed, a denial of historical context. On the contrary, it is an assertion that the horrors of racist discrimination were once real but are now over and done with.
Books by Kenan Van de Mieroop-Al Bahrani
Historical Narratives Project, 2019
The Civil Rights Movement is one of the most widely discussed and controversial periods of Americ... more The Civil Rights Movement is one of the most widely discussed and controversial periods of American history. Both in scholarship and in popular culture, it has become commonplace to note that different individuals and groups have fundamentally different "narratives" of the events that took place and that these accounts have political implications. But while critiques of Civil Rights narratives are common, they rarely involve an evaluation of the narratives they bring to task as narratives ; that is to say, as formal structures that effectively produce meaning. This chapter presents a formal, transmedial narratological, analysis of some of the current influential narratives of the Civil Rights Movement, in the hopes that this exercise will demonstrate the significance of narration in historical writing in general and in African American history in particular. The article makes the case that the multidisciplinary narratological and semiotic analysis of historical narratives can offer critical insights about the diversity of ways in which history is constructed and disseminated in contemporary society, and can expose the political stakes involved in the choice of, seemingly innocuous or incidental, narrative and figurative strategies.
Book Reviews by Kenan Van de Mieroop-Al Bahrani
History of Intellectual Culture, 2014
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Papers by Kenan Van de Mieroop-Al Bahrani
Books by Kenan Van de Mieroop-Al Bahrani
Book Reviews by Kenan Van de Mieroop-Al Bahrani