Home Literary Studies History, Theory and the Middle Voice
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

History, Theory and the Middle Voice

  • Vladimir Biti
Published/Copyright: February 27, 2008
Become an author with De Gruyter Brill
Author Information Explore this Subject
arcadia
From the journal Volume 38 Issue 2

Abstract

“Consciousness is always late for the rendezvous with the neighbor”, stated Emmanuel Levinas (1987: 119) pointing to the obliging “proximity” of the past that resists all attempts at objectifying historical reflection. Therefore, instead of trying to encapsulate it into unifying cognitive terms, the historian should strive to discern its voice disseminated out of an equivocal space irreducible to the firm site of her consciousness. Destitute of a proper foothold, territory or context, of a recognizable psychic, physical or cultural anchorage, the one who is proximate, in the way Levinas imagines it, is encountered neither visually nor conceptually, but as someone who approaches us (“makes an entry”) in the form of an interpellation, summons or command.

Published Online: 2008-02-27
Published in Print: 2003-10-14

© Walter de Gruyter

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Portrait of an Interdisciplinary Life. John Neubauer zum 70. Geburtstag
  2. Introduction
  3. Thought-Images: A Brief History of Time
  4. The Return of the Dinosaurs: About Scientific Imagination and its Affects
  5. Borders and Monuments: Goethe's Reconstruction of the World as Knowledge
  6. History, Theory and Abraham Gottlob Werner
  7. Mynheer Peeperkorn's Fever
  8. Introduction
  9. History, Empire, Opera
  10. Music Albums: A Tiny Gesamtkunstwerk?
  11. Listening to Kurt Schwitters' Ursonate. A Dadaistic-Romantic transposition d'arts?
  12. Introduction
  13. Reading Melling's Voyage pittoresque de Constantinople. Topography and Control
  14. Penumbra
  15. Bruno Freddi's Vissuto
  16. From Stony Facts to Paper Flowers
  17. Picturing It. The Issue of Visuality in the Classical Theory of Metaphor
  18. Introduction
  19. The Practical Use of Historiography: from Haffner to Herodotus
  20. The Gap between Hannah Arendt and Franz Kafka
  21. Literature and Art in History
  22. Cultural Memory, Cultural History and Cultural Canons in the Third Millennium
  23. Cross-border Histories
  24. Introduction
  25. The Intolerable
  26. History, Theory and the Middle Voice
  27. Sacred Memory or Relics: Should Holocaust Documents Be Altered?
  28. Blasting the Historical Continuum: Stories of my Grandmother
  29. Der Erlkönig in Sarajevo: Did the monument forecast the catastrophe?
  30. Introduction
  31. Hans Mayer – Ansichten eines komparatistischen Außenseiters
  32. Mastering Adolescence in the Age of Cultural Studies
  33. Bamboozled by Literature
  34. Arguments for a Cross-Cultural Literary History. Theoretical and Practical Implications
  35. Comparative Literary History, Theory and Practice: John Neubauer's Contribution
  36. “Rich Seeds We Must Sow … But If Only a Few Will Take”
  37. John Neubauer's Cultural Geographies
  38. The Marathon Man
  39. Embracing the Horizon
  40. Rezensionen
https://doi.org/10.1515/arca.38.2.354

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Portrait of an Interdisciplinary Life. John Neubauer zum 70. Geburtstag
  2. Introduction
  3. Thought-Images: A Brief History of Time
  4. The Return of the Dinosaurs: About Scientific Imagination and its Affects
  5. Borders and Monuments: Goethe's Reconstruction of the World as Knowledge
  6. History, Theory and Abraham Gottlob Werner
  7. Mynheer Peeperkorn's Fever
  8. Introduction
  9. History, Empire, Opera
  10. Music Albums: A Tiny Gesamtkunstwerk?
  11. Listening to Kurt Schwitters' Ursonate. A Dadaistic-Romantic transposition d'arts?
  12. Introduction
  13. Reading Melling's Voyage pittoresque de Constantinople. Topography and Control
  14. Penumbra
  15. Bruno Freddi's Vissuto
  16. From Stony Facts to Paper Flowers
  17. Picturing It. The Issue of Visuality in the Classical Theory of Metaphor
  18. Introduction
  19. The Practical Use of Historiography: from Haffner to Herodotus
  20. The Gap between Hannah Arendt and Franz Kafka
  21. Literature and Art in History
  22. Cultural Memory, Cultural History and Cultural Canons in the Third Millennium
  23. Cross-border Histories
  24. Introduction
  25. The Intolerable
  26. History, Theory and the Middle Voice
  27. Sacred Memory or Relics: Should Holocaust Documents Be Altered?
  28. Blasting the Historical Continuum: Stories of my Grandmother
  29. Der Erlkönig in Sarajevo: Did the monument forecast the catastrophe?
  30. Introduction
  31. Hans Mayer – Ansichten eines komparatistischen Außenseiters
  32. Mastering Adolescence in the Age of Cultural Studies
  33. Bamboozled by Literature
  34. Arguments for a Cross-Cultural Literary History. Theoretical and Practical Implications
  35. Comparative Literary History, Theory and Practice: John Neubauer's Contribution
  36. “Rich Seeds We Must Sow … But If Only a Few Will Take”
  37. John Neubauer's Cultural Geographies
  38. The Marathon Man
  39. Embracing the Horizon
  40. Rezensionen
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2026 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 22.2.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/arca.38.2.354/html
Scroll to top button