Publicação
Nostalgia and the Loss of Truth: Sketches Towards a Hauntology of the “Post-Truth” Condition
| Resumo: | Among the most popular attempts to give a coherent diagnosis of the political frictions of contemporary Western societies resides the concept of a supposed “post-truth” era. While the underlying premise of a once vivid and now lost culture of truth has been debunked many times, attempts to understand more closely what is actually meant when “the truth” is proclaimed dead are exceedingly rare. By drawing from the works of Jacques Derrida, Zygmunt Bauman and Ernesto Laclau, this paper will shift the analytical focus towards a hauntological reading of the “post-truth” condition. Through examining both liberal and populist cultures of truth as well as their guiding political imaginaries, the paper will show that, as vastly different as their respective notions of “the truth” might be, they are both guided by retrotopian nostalgia for a fictionalized past, that not only forces them to bury “the truth” but to inherit its legacy. |
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| Autores principais: | Schädel, Tobias |
| Assunto: | Post-truth Hauntology Retrotopia Nostalgia Social imaginaries |
| Ano: | 2024 |
| País: | Portugal |
| Tipo de documento: | artigo |
| Tipo de acesso: | unknown |
| Instituição associada: | Universidade Católica Portuguesa |
| Idioma: | inglês |
| Origem: | Diffractions |
| Resumo: | Among the most popular attempts to give a coherent diagnosis of the political frictions of contemporary Western societies resides the concept of a supposed “post-truth” era. While the underlying premise of a once vivid and now lost culture of truth has been debunked many times, attempts to understand more closely what is actually meant when “the truth” is proclaimed dead are exceedingly rare. By drawing from the works of Jacques Derrida, Zygmunt Bauman and Ernesto Laclau, this paper will shift the analytical focus towards a hauntological reading of the “post-truth” condition. Through examining both liberal and populist cultures of truth as well as their guiding political imaginaries, the paper will show that, as vastly different as their respective notions of “the truth” might be, they are both guided by retrotopian nostalgia for a fictionalized past, that not only forces them to bury “the truth” but to inherit its legacy. |
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