I.

Clio: Has History in the West become a place of memory?

May 23, 2019, 15:00

5F Conference Room, Museum Building, Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica

 Abstract:

Is History a Western place of memory? It is an iconoclastic question, which, until the 1970s, would have surprised, or even shocked, historians. In the best case scenario, they would not have grasped the meaning of the question. Because it was understood that, on one side, there was memory, and, on the other, there was history, and the domain of historians began where memory left off. Since then, great upheavals took place, marked by the irresistible rise of memory in Europe and beyond. But the memorial wave has also led to an interrogation about History both as a discipline and as a dominant belief of the modern world—a world which, in fact, is no longer our own. In this new context, we must ask if History, which has accompanied the modern world, managed to explain it and give it meaning, might not now need a brand new conceptualization.

II.

Toward a new historical Condition

 May 24, 2019, 15:00

Conference Room 1, Research Center for Humanities and Social sciences, Academia Sinica

 Abstract:

From the transformations of our historical experiences, can we hypothesize the emergence of a new historical condition? I think we can answer this question in the affirmative. Indeed, the questioning of the modern concept of history, as well as the rise of memory, the future in crisis, the growing place taken by the present alone are all symptoms of the recent and profound transformations of our experience of time. The discipline of history struggles to grasp these transformations and, even more, to give them meaning. Can global history, which has developed rapidly, put forward a new concept of history? Isn’t the concept of the Anthropocene, which recognizes humanity as a geological force, nothing short of a radical questioning of history as it has been written since the modern era?

Speaker:

François Hartog, Historian, Professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), where he holds the chair in Ancient and Modern Historiography. Visiting in various Universities abroad.

Recent publications include La nation, la religion, l’avenir Sur les traces d’Ernest Renan (Gallimard, 2017), Partir pour la Grèce (Flammarion, 2015); Regimes of Historicity, Presentism and Experiences of Time (trad. Columbia 2015), Croire en l’histoire (Flammarion, 2013);  Anciens, modernes, sauvages (Seuil 2008); Évidence de l’histoire. Ce que voient les historiens (Gallimard, 2008).

Organiser:

CEFC Taipei 法國現代中國研究中心台北分部

 EFEO Taipei Center 法國遠東學院台北中心

Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica 中研院歷史語言研究所

Sponsors:

Research Center for Humanities and Social sciences, Academia Sinica 中研院人文社會科學研究中心

Bureau Français de Taipei 法國在台協會

Academia Sinica 中央研究院

The talk will be given in English. Registration is not required.

Access and transportation:  

https://www.iis.sinica.edu.tw/page/aboutus/Directions.html?lang=en