In these essays, Michael S. Roth uses psychoanalysis to build a richer understanding of history, and then takes a more expansive conception of history to decode the cultural construction of memory. He first examines the development in nineteenth-century France of medical criteria for diagnosing memory disorders, which signal fundamental changes in the understanding of present and past. He next explores links between historical consciousness and issues relating to the psyche, including trauma and repression and hypnosis and therapy. Roth turns to the work of postmodern theorists in connection with the philosophy of history and then examines photography's capacity to capture traces of the past. He considers how we strive to be faithful to the past even when we don't care about getting it right or using it productively. Roth concludes with essays defending pragmatic and reflexive liberal education. Drawing on his experiences as a teacher and academic leader, he speaks of living with the past without being dominated by it.
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part 1: Nineteenth-Century Maladies of Memory
- 1. Remembering Forgetting: Maladies de la Mémoire in Nineteenth-Century France
- 2. Dying of the Past: Medical Studies of Nostalgia in Nineteenth-Century France
- 3. Hysterical Remembering
- Part 2: History and the Psyche
- 4. Trauma, Representation, and Historical Consciousness
- 5. Trauma: A Dystopia of the Spirit
- 6. Falling into History: Freud’s Case of “Frau Emmy von N.”
- 7. Why Freud Haunts Us
- Part 3: Postmodernism and Cultural Politics
- 8. Why Warburg Now?
- 9. Classic Postmodernism: Keith Jenkins
- 10. Ebb Tide: Frank Ankersmit
- 11. The Art of Losing Oneself: Anne Carson and Decreation
- 12. Inquiry as Hope: Richard Rorty
- Part 4: Photography and Piety
- 13. Photographic Ambivalence
- 14. Why Photography Matters to the Theory of History
- 15. Ordinary Film: Péter Forgács’s The Maelstrom
- Coda: Risks and Limits of Liberal Education
- 17. On a Certain Blindness in Teaching
- 18. Beyond Critical Thinking
- 19. Good and Risky: On the Promise of a Liberal Education
- Notes
- Index
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