The spectral simultaneity of the nonsimultaneous and the gleichzeitigkeit des ungleichzeitigen

• Grant number: 23/17579-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: July 13, 2024
• End date: January 12, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Theory and Philosophy of History
• Principal Investigator: Hélio Rebello Cardoso Júnior
• Grantee: Ana Laura Camargo Cunha
• Supervisor: Ethan Kleinberg
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Letras (FCL-ASSIS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Assis. Assis , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Wesleyan University, United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 23/00930-0 - Historical time in the recent theory of history: multi-heterochronicity and the conflictive spectral disjunctions., BP.MS

Abstract

In recent decades, issues of time and temporality have acquired a prominent position in the theory and philosophy of history. Against this backdrop, the "presence paradigm", which is placed within a wider trend named by Ethan Kleinberg as "new metaphysics of time", invites scholars to examine the aporia inscribed in the notion that the past can return as an absent presence. Nevertheless, the presence trend is composed of different or even opposing epistemic positions. Therefore, as Cardoso Jr. remarks, it is preferable to think in terms of "varieties of historical presence". Accordingly, this research project thematizes the theoretical background of a critical branch of historical presence that has been called "deconstructionist" or "Derridean" presence by reason of its engagement with Jacques Derrida's philosophy. Furthermore, this research project analyzes Reinhart Koselleck's temporal theory, from which comes another sub-trend of the new metaphysics of time named "multiple temporalities". In this framework, it is aimed to undertake a comparative study on two almost homonymous locutions, but which nonetheless diverge on a theoretical level, namely, Koselleck's "gleichzeitigkeit des ungleichzeitigen" and Derrida's "simultaneity of the nonsimultaneous" in order to probe the limits and relevance of their conceptual conjunction for a theory of time. To this end, this research project submits an application for a research internship abroad to be carried out under the supervision of Dr. Ethan Kleinberg, who is a professor at Wesleyan University, Editor-in-Chief of History and Theory and an exponent of the "Derridean presence". Recently, Dr. Kleinberg suggested a possible correlation between "multiple temporalities" and the "deconstructionist presence" in view of the multi-temporal entanglement that the ghostly presence of the past exposes. Hence, a research internship at Wesleyan University under his supervision would certainly foster fruitful contributions to this research project which, after all, delves into the theoretical backdrop of both the deconstructionist presence and the multiple temporalities.