Rereading 1821 in Greek national historiography: Spyridon Zambelios with Hegel
Item
Title
Rereading 1821 in Greek national historiography: Spyridon Zambelios with Hegel
Alternative Title
Nachdenken über 1821 in der griechischen Nationalhistoriographie: Spyridon Zambelios mit Hegel
List Of Authors
Creator
Spatial Coverage
Subject - keywords
Date
17 May 2021
Abstract
In the “retrospective” (οπισθόρμητος) method adopted by Spyridon Zambelios – one of the founders of Greek national historiography – in his “philosophy of history,” 1821 is the event on which the interpretation of all previous time depends. It confers meaning not only on the Fall of Constantinople in 1204 and 1453, but on all past events of European history, and without it the whole “tree” of the “universal history” of the Middle Ages would dry out (Άσματα Δημοτικά, 502). And yet, at the end of his Βυζαντιναί Μελέται, Zambelios declares that 1821 is only a first token, ένα πρώτον δοκίμιον, of national renaissance, still unfinished at the time he is writing, in 1857. In accounting for the apparent tension, this paper suggests that the other aspect of all retrospective understanding of history is a radical “non-synchronicity”, an understanding of history where the present is never present to itself, never coincides with its own meaning. It follows this understanding in Zambelios’ discussion of crucial moments of the Middle Ages – and more importantly the “suicide” of Byzantium in 1453, which it reads in parallel with Hegelian passages on the transition from the old to the new national Spirit (Vorlesungen über die Philosophie der Geschichte). Anachronism erodes from within the revolution itself. As Reinhart Koselleck puts it with reference to Hegel, modern Revolution is haunted by the need for repetition: it traps consciousness “in a finite ‘not yet’ possessing the structure of a perennial imperative (Sollen)”.
(Modified abstract from conference documentation)
(Modified abstract from conference documentation)
Type specialization
Format
Text
Bibliographic Citation
https://www.byzneo.univie.ac.at/archiv/conference-200-years-after-reassessing-the-greek-revolution-of-1821/
https://www.byzneo.univie.ac.at/fileadmin/user_upload/i_byzneo/vortraege_oegns/200_Jahre_Unabhaengigkeitskrieg__Abstracts.pdf
Number Of Pages - Duration
00:20:00
Rights
BY-NC-ND Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives CC0 No Rights Reserved
Position: 7833 (21 views)