Historical Consciousness, Time & Social Movements
Location
Wedgewood Conference Center, Room 4094
Presentation Type
Presentation
Start Date
23-9-2014 10:00 AM
Description
A unique part of being human is our understanding of time amidst a historical continuum, where a sense of the past intervenes on what we perceive to be the present. In modern societies, this sense of the past takes the shape of historical consciousness, where we imagine ourselves as part of a longer historical trajectory, from narrow considerations of family and kin to the broadest possible frames of world-historical understanding. These ways of being in the world are themselves subject to considerations of time and place, as human beings’ disposition to history and sense of the past constantly change. Social movements offer perhaps the best venue for considering precisely how human beings encounter historical consciousness, because they goad activists and observers to consider the place of a particular movement within broader frames of historical understanding. Amidst social movements, people make use of analogies to other historical events and create narratives of human activity that would give history some shape, purpose or larger meaning. Using the civil rights movement as a recent example, this presentation explores the phenomenon of historical consciousness.
Recommended Citation
Kuryla, Peter, "Historical Consciousness, Time & Social Movements" (2014). Humanities Symposium. 29.
https://repository.belmont.edu/humanities_symposium/2014/2014/29
Historical Consciousness, Time & Social Movements
Wedgewood Conference Center, Room 4094
A unique part of being human is our understanding of time amidst a historical continuum, where a sense of the past intervenes on what we perceive to be the present. In modern societies, this sense of the past takes the shape of historical consciousness, where we imagine ourselves as part of a longer historical trajectory, from narrow considerations of family and kin to the broadest possible frames of world-historical understanding. These ways of being in the world are themselves subject to considerations of time and place, as human beings’ disposition to history and sense of the past constantly change. Social movements offer perhaps the best venue for considering precisely how human beings encounter historical consciousness, because they goad activists and observers to consider the place of a particular movement within broader frames of historical understanding. Amidst social movements, people make use of analogies to other historical events and create narratives of human activity that would give history some shape, purpose or larger meaning. Using the civil rights movement as a recent example, this presentation explores the phenomenon of historical consciousness.
Comments
Convocation Credit: Academic Lecture