Donnerstag | 14.30 Uhr | Chinese apocalyptic eschatologies, 1800-1950. Typologies, contexts, and circulation Vincent Gossaert This talk examines the modern and contemporary trajectories of apocalyptic ideas in China. It shows how these ideas (according to which the end of the world is near because the gods have decided to annihilate sinful humanity) were particularly widespread during the late Qing (1644-1911) and Republican (1912-1949) China. Events (natural or man-made disasters such as the Taiping War, the Boxer Rebellion, the 1911 Revolution, the Sino-Japanese War, etc.) were understood in this light as new episodes in a dramatic story of collective damnation and salvation. Contrary to a historiography that emphasises the ruptures of modernity, and in particular the May 4th movement, I will show that religious books composed at the end of the imperial era (including the eschatological revelations inspired by the Taiping war) continued to be widely reprinted and distributed during the twentieth century, thus maintaining the substratum on which new apocalyptic discourses could flourish. They convey a little-studied counter-discourse (but also, in a way, a complement) to the better-known modern utopias of progress; compared with secular narratives, they offer alternative visions of the link between individual and collective destiny. What is more, far from opposing two totally irreconcilable visions of the world, progressive and apocalyptic discourses have in fact coexisted and fertilised each other. Adresse Centre for Asian and Transcultural Studies (CATS) 010.01.05 (CATS Auditorium) Voßstrasse 2 69115 Heidelberg Veranstalter Centre for Asian and Transcultural Studies (CATS) Homepage Veranstalter https://www.cats.uni-heidelberg.de Kontakt contact@cats.uni-heidelberg.de Alle Termine der Veranstaltung 'Lecture Series: Apocalypse now. Time, Historicity and Worlds After': While periodization—the partition of time into segments with a specific beginning and end—is integral to historical method, it cannot be dissociated from a wider reflection on a key issue: the relation between emic time (time as perceived by historical actors) and etic time (time as established by the scholar’s historical narrative). The relation between emic and etic times is an essential methodological question within human, social, and even natural sciences. In this seminar, we will come back to this question through a particular lens: the “end of times” or “apocalypses.” How do historical actors perceive it? What happens to historiographical narratives when actors talk about the future, as the “end” of time? How has such a vision of the future shaped narratives and periodization schemes?By focusing on “ends of times” and “apocalypse,” we intend to discuss the tensions between time, temporalities and time horizons, both methodologically and empirically, in specific contexts. This year, we will examine these questions in three main areas: 1. political history—the history of revolutions; 2. religious history—the history of last judgements and revelations; and 3. natural history—the history of pandemics, cataclysms and disasters.--The first block (Political History) will discuss the link between revolution and the end of time, starting with revolutions at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including the Russian and Chinese revolutions.--The second block (Religious History) will consider perceptions of the end of time within some of the main religions, considering different takes on apocalyptic revelations, universal floods, millenarianisms and messianic movements.--Finally, the third block (Natural History) will discuss natural disasters and epidemics, and will feature the controversies over geological eras (such as the Anthropocene) and collapsology. Donnerstag, 14. November 2024, 14.30 Uhr Rosicrucian Apocalypticism and Freemasonry: on the Mystical Sources of Modern Political Thought Cristina Ciucu Donnerstag, 21. November 2024, 14.30 Uhr Population Bomb: Apocalyptic Imaginaries, World Hunger and the Threat of Revolution Donnerstag, 28. November 2024, 14.30 Uhr Clemena Antonova Donnerstag, 05. Dezember 2024, 14.30 Uhr Aaron Pride Donnerstag, 12. Dezember 2024, 14.30 Uhr Angels of the apocalypse: cinema, religion, and the end of the world Marika Rose Donnerstag, 19. Dezember 2024, 14.30 Uhr Chinese apocalyptic eschatologies, 1800-1950. Typologies, contexts, and circulation Vincent Gossaert Donnerstag, 09. Januar 2025, 14.30 Uhr Ethnofiction: a rebirth scenario for the collapse of the Mar Menor, Spain Mafe Moscoso Donnerstag, 16. Januar 2025, 14.30 Uhr ‘Of all maladies the most common’. Explaining the ‘Age of Fevers’, 1770-1830 Stefanie Gänger Donnerstag, 23. Januar 2025, 14.30 Uhr Barbara Mittler, Alessandro Stanziani, Pablo Blitstein |