The Varieties of Temporal Experience

Michael Jackson demonstrates the significance of a phenomenology of time through a multifaceted consideration of the gap between our cultural representations of temporality and our experience. Jackson juxtaposes philosophy, history, and ethnography in an attempt to do justice to the bewildering multiplicity of temporal experience.

Jackson Michael D. :

Michael D. Jackson (PhD, Anthropology, Cambridge)is Distinguished Visiting Professor of World Religions at Harvard University. He is the author of numerous books, including At Home in the World (Duke, 2012), Lifeworlds: Essays in Existential Anthropology (Chicago, 2013), As Wide as the World is Wise: Reinventing Philosophical Anthropology (Columbia, 2016), The Varieties of Temporal Experience: Travels in Philosophical, Historical, and Ethnographic Time (Columbia, 2018), and The Work of Art: Rethinking the Elementary Forms of Religious Life (Columbia, 2016).Michael Jackson is Distinguished Professor of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School. His Columbia University Press books include As Wide as the World Is Wise: Reinventing Philosophical Anthropology (2016) and The Work of Art: Rethinking the Elementary Forms of Religious Life (2016).

Andrew Brandel, Harvard University:
This remarkable book traces how a complex tapestry of interlocking temporalities configures our experience. Taking us on a journey across a breathtaking range of moments as a story unfolds, and drawing on a diverse anthropological, literary, and philosophical archive, Jackson sheds light on what it means to live with stories of different times—from the historical to the mythological, the mundane to the fantastic. These stories remind us that life is often uncannily stitched across various temporalities and selves. The Varieties of Temporal Experience is an insightful contribution from one of the humanities’ most sophisticated and original voices.

Dominic Boyer, Rice University:
In his latest work, Michael Jackson explores enigmas of the past and how stories help us to make our lives easier to live. Jackson’s anthropology draws out the vivid particularities of human experience and spins them into webs of connectivity across time, space, and culture. Like everything else Jackson has written, The Varieties of Temporal Experience juxtaposes philosophy and everyday knowledge in precise and compassionate ways. And the writing is so good, it aches to put this book down.

Robert Desjarlais, Sarah Lawrence College:
This is a rich and highly important work of anthropological thought and creative writing. Through a deft combination of creative nonfiction, ethnographic fieldwork, and autobiographical reflections, Michael Jackson explores the ways that human beings engage with processes of time, history (both personal and collective), memory, and relationships in dynamic, multiple, and pragmatic ways.

Veena Das, Johns Hopkins University:
The Varieties of Temporal Experience is a gripping, challenging work that brings a unique voice to questions about how we experience time. To enable the reader to dwell in experiences of time in its variety and to experience firstness, providing gentle nudges but not overwhelming the reader with a heavy apparatus, is no small achievement.