Temporality and historicity

phenomenology of history beyond narratology

Shigeto Nuki

pp. 149-165

in: John Brough, Lester Embree (eds), The many faces of time, Berlin, Springer, 2000

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to clarify the significance which should be attributed to the phenomenology of history in comparison with the contemporary philosophy of history, especially "anti-realistic" narratology. Although the positive contributions of narratology in general, as a dominant position regarding the philosophical discussions about history, are undeniable, it can amount to an "anti-realistic" philosophy that negates the reality of past events. This paper is concerned to show, first, that the anti-realistic claim concerning the reality of the past is based on a false argument which lacks a subtle analysis of narrative, and then to show that the reality of the historical past can be clarified only through the mechanism of our temporal experience as it is analyzed by Edmund Husserl in his Analysen zur passiven Synthesis.¹

Cited authors

Husserl Edmund