996002 Temporal Anarchy (S) (SoSe 2020)

This course is designed to explore the concept of “temporal anarchy” which seeks to deal with the messiness or unruliness of “time,” the ways that scholars and historians in particular seek to control or account for it, and the repercussions of these acts on academic disciplines, scholarship, culture, and politics. Over the course of two days we will read thinkers who sought to account for the messiness or unruliness of time and temporality (an-arkhos is without chief or ruler so some discussion of the archive will follow as well). My interest in the topic is not unrelated to my interest in ghosts,hauntology, and a deconstructive approach to the past. The ghost or specter is troubling precisely because it is the past come again but emptied of its physical properties and disobedient to the rules of time and space. “One cannot control its comings and goings because it begins by coming back.”

The first day will be a discussion of texts and the second day will be further discussion and presentation (the amount of time dedicated to presentations on the second day will be determined by the number of participants). The first day discussion will be on a series of core texts (to be distributed in the 'Lernraum'). Please read them closely in advance so that we can have an informed debate. On the second day, participants will present their own work through the theoretical questions raised by “temporal anarchy” and the texts read, giving a brief informal presentation on how the theoretical, methodological, and/or historiographical issues resonate with their respective projects. Please note that this means something other than a workshop presentation or the usual “elevator talk” presentation of your work. The focus should be on the question of how the issues of the seminar resonate with your project rather than on the content of your project, and the presentation itself is not expected to be anything like a conference talk. Presentations will be followed by discussions of all participants enrolled in the seminar.