“‘Rejuvenated images of the past’. The memory vs. history debate”

Joan Ramon Resina, Stanford University

The German theologian and historian Johann Martin Chladenius, one of the founders of historicism, argued for the importance of taking into consideration the historian’s point of view. The scholar, working by means of language, creates “rejuvenated images”, that is, artificially invigorated or even cosmetically improved representations of a bygone time. By contrast, contemporary attacks on “historical memory” in the name of “critical history” neglect the hermeneutic lessons that stand at the origins of modern historiography.