Theatres of Memory: Past and Present in Contemporary Culture - Couverture rigide

Samuel, Raphael

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0860912094 ISBN 13 : 9780860912095

Editeur : Verso, 1995

Synopsis

Book by Samuel Raphael

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur :

The idea that the past is a plaything of the present, or a ‘metafiction’, is only now beginning to disturb the tranquillity of professional historians, but for some twenty years it has been a commonplace of epistemological criticism, and a mainspring of experimental work in literature and the arts. Thus in ‘magic realism’ or ‘modern Gothic’ the fairy tale can appear as the latest thing; while in the visual arts, futurist installations offer themselves as parodies of Old Masters. ‘Back to the Future’ is also a leitmotiv in commodity and marketing design—something discussed here under the heading of ‘Retrochic’—while in Britain, as in other advanced capitalist societies, conservation has been the cutting edge of the business recolonization of the inner city.

According to critics of the heritage industry the current obsession with the past signals not a return to tradition but the exhaustion of history’s grand narratives. The postmodern condition, so the argument runs, is one where the future has spectacularly parted company from the past. Nostalgia is the sigh of the historically orphaned, heritage a symptom of national decay.

In this book—the first of a trilogy—Raphael Samuel takes issue with the heritage baiters. He offers an alternative genealogy of resurrectionism, relating it to the environmentalist movements of our time. He argues that we live in an expanding historical culture, one which is newly alert to the evidence of the visual, and which is reconnecting the study of landscape and townscape to that of the natural world. It is also, he argues, more democratic than earlier versions of the national past, and much more hospitable to hitherto stigmatized minorities. The volume is prefaced with a long essay on unofficial knowledge and has an Afterword on ‘allegories of the real’.

Revue de presse :

“Whose history is it, then? That’s the question driving Raphael Samuel’s provocative investigation of the historically steeped nature of British culture ... A joy to read.”—Roy Porter, New Statesman

“A brilliant and compelling historical vision.”—Jonathan Clark, The Times

“An alluring, hugely energetic writer ... Samuel is invaluable.”—Fiona MacCarthy, Observer

“Challenging, perceptive and gloriously eclectic.”—David Robinson, The Scotsman

“Magnificent.”—David Edgar, Independent on Sunday

“A showcase for Samuel’s quite astonishing historical and cultural range.”—Stefan Collini, Times Literary Supplement

“One of the most outstanding, original intellectuals of his generation.”—Stuart Hall

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Verso
• Date d'édition: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0860912094
• ISBN 13: 9780860912095
• Reliure: Relié
• Numéro d'édition: 1
• Nombre de pages: 320