Commemorative Practices in the Humanities around 1900

Abstract

Around 1900, the humanities underwent a metamorphosis which led to the emergence of modern disciplines. This transformation was accompanied by another process, the building of scientific communities. The central question addressed in this essay was how these new disciplinary communities in the humanities were strengthened by commemorative practices. Those practices could be highly diverse, ranging from the dedication of a book and the circulation and collection of photographs to the organisation of tribute events, attending of funerals and writing of obituaries. The forms that these practices could take were mapped out in this essay using material drawn from the archives of three prominent (literary) historians from Belgium and the Netherlands: Paul Fredericq, Robert Fruin and Jan te Winkel.

Historical Studies in Nineteenth-Century Germany: The Case of Hartwig Floto

“…Likewise, Floto did not live to see the methodological battles prompted by Karl Lamprecht's forays into social psychology -resulting in a type of history that was much more responsive to the emerging social sciences than traditional political history -or to witness the growing international reputation of German historiography (e.g., Lingelbach 2002). 20 Finally, the case of Floto hardly touches on a theme that has recently developed into a subject of research: historians' memory cultures, including their habit of honoring deceased scholars with often lengthy obituaries (Tollebeek 2015). In nineteenth-century Germany, social conventions required historians to commemorate especially their former teachers in public, as a sign of gratitude for the education they had received.…”

History and Philosophy of History (HPH)

“…Such cooperation is no longer self-evident, though. Recent work in the history of historiography tends to focus on cultural-historical themes like the gendered aspects of historians' work (Schnicke 2015;Porciani 2009;Smith 1998), the habits and routines of historians working in archives (Müller 2019;Trüper 2014;Saxer 2013;Wimmer 2012), or the commemorative practices in which historians engage (Paul 2017;Creyghton 2016;Tollebeek 2015). This not only reveals an interest in other themes than explanation, narrative, or representation, but also a methodological orientation on other fields than philosophy.…”