European Counterimages: Problems of Periodization and Historical Memory

TitleEuropean Counterimages: Problems of Periodization and Historical Memory
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication1990
AuthorsDan Diner
JournalPraxis International
Volume10
Issue1/2
Pagination14-23
ISSN02608448
Abstract

The article attempts to grasp this dynamism of change are beset by an additional and complicating factor: namely that such a diagnostic enterprise tries to place events in a historical framework in order to explore the locus of the present against the backdrop of the past. The diagnosis of the current moment dons a historiographical costume, so to speak. It is thus no surprise when the outcroppings of such "views" include presumptuous notions claiming that the "end of history" is accompanied by a triumphant gesture alleging the victory of one form of society and polity over another. Last summer, in a widely discussed article, the American Francis Fukuyama proclaimed the final victory of western liberalism over its totalitarian alternatives in this century: namely fascism and communism. The open society, it seems, has finally defeated its enemies--history appears to be approaching fulfillment. As true as this apodictic, utterly certain realization of victory of western values over theft totalitarian alternatives may appear--the associated and highly questionable formula about the supposed "end of history" should give us pause for thought. Paradoxically, that notion reminds us of previous totalitarian temptations in history, since the proclamation of history's end is accompanied by a further claim: that an end has come to history's interpretation as a conditioning factor for further historical movement.

Short TitleEuropean Counterimages