Review Essay: Karl Schlögel Reads Time in Space: Tracing Old Paths Towards New Horizons

Abstract

History does not only happen in time, but in space as well." Karl SCHLÖGEL, expert in Eastern European history, Slavist, sociologist and philosopher, uncovers an astonishing deficit within the historical sciences: the indifference towards the physical and spatial dimension of its subjects. He feels that the time is ripe to strengthen the category "space." Space should again be placed in the midst of "time" in order to emphasize—in correspondence to the Zeitgeist of stronger interdisciplinary collaboration—the inseparable connection and mutual influence between both entities: time and space. SCHLÖGEL speaks of a "spatial turn" of the reading of mental and territorial maps, of surface adhesion and topographic structures. Through what he describes as "eye-work," he tries to create a translucent image of European history. His book is to be read as a forward-groping exploration through both—historical "spaces" and present "landscapes" of scientific research—which overlay the natural physical surroundings. His is an appeal to sharpen the senses, to widen perspectives—a request to empirical research to be courageous in a global epoch of simultaneity of the non-simultaneous. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0502128