Books on "Presence"

The topic of the "presence" of the past, alongside with others such as the historical experience, the ethical relationship between present and past, the human-animal relation, etc., has gained increased attention in the last decade by historical theorists, providing a most welcome supplement to the previous discussions focused on the production of meaning. 

Here is a short bibliography on the topic, which also includes some more empirical-oriented studies about the twentieth-century history that deal with "persistent pasts". Suggestions are welcome!

GHOSH, Ranjan & KLEINBERG, Ethan (Eds.). Presence: Philosophy, History, and Cultural Theory for the Twenty-First Century. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2013.

GUMBRECHT, Hans Ulrich. After 1945: Latency as Origin of the Present. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2013.

ANKERSMIT, Frank. Presence. In: Meaning, Truth, and Reference in Historical Representation. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2012.

MUNSLOW, Alun. The Presence of the Past. In: A History of History. London and New York: Routledge, 2012.

FROEYMAN, Anton. Frank Ankersmit and Eelco Runia: the presence and the otherness of the past. Rethinking History, Volume 16, Issue 3, 2012, pp. 393-415.

BEVERNAGE, Berber. History, Memory, and State-Sponsored Violence: Time and Justice. London: Routledge, 2011.

LORENZ, Chris. Unstuck in Time. Or: the sudden presence of the past. In: TILMANS, Karin, VREE, Frank Van & WINTER Jay (Eds.). Performing the Past: Memory, History and Identity in Modern Europe. Amsterdan: Amsterdan University Press, 2010, pp. 67-102.

PIETTE, Albert. L’acte d’exister : Une phenomenographie de la presence. Socrate Promarex, 2009.

BEVERNAGE, Berber. Time, Presence, and Historical Injustice. History and Theory, vol. 47, n. 2, 2008, pp. 149–167.

RUNIA, Eelco & BROUWER, Elizabeth (Eds.). History and Theory. Forum: On Presence. October 2006, pp. 305-375.

RUNIA, Eelco. Presence. History and Theory, v. 45, n. 1, February 2006, pp 1-29.

GUMBRECHT, Hans Ulrich. Production of Presence: What meaning cannot convey. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004.

HUYSSEN, Andreas. Present Pasts: Urban Palimpsests and the Politics of Memory. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003.

NANCY, Jean-Luc. The Birth to Presence. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993.

STEINER, George. Real Presences. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989.

Re-Figuring Hayden White, edited by Frank Ankersmit, Ewa Domanska and Hans Kellner

From Amazon:

Produced in honor of White's eightieth birthday, Re-Figuring Hayden White testifies to the lasting importance of White's innovative work, which firmly reintegrates historical studies with literature and the humanities. The book is a major reconsideration of the historian's contributions and influence by an international group of leading scholars from a variety of disciplines. Individual essays address the key concepts of White's intellectual career, including tropes, narrative, figuralism, and the historical sublime while exploring the place of White's work in the philosophy of history, postmodernism, and ethics. They also discuss his role as historian and teacher and apply his ideas to specific historical events.

Table of Contents

From NLA:

Introduction: A Distinctively Human Life
Hans Kellner

Part I - Philosophy

Philosophy, an Introduction
Ewa Domanska

1. On the Metaphilosophy of History
David Carr

2. White's "New Neo-Kantianism": Aesthetics, Ethics, and Politics
Frank Ankersmit

3. Hayden White and the Crisis of Historicism
Herman Paul

Part II - Narrative

Narrative, an Introduction
Frank Ankersmit

4. Narrative Persistence: The Post-Postmodern Life of Narrative Theory
Nancy Partner

5. "Nobody Does It Better": Radical History and Hayden White
Keith Jenkins

6. Metahistory as Anabasis
Andrew Baird

7. History: Myth and Narrative: A Coda for Roland Barthes and Hayden White
Stephen Bann

Part III - Discourse

Discourse, an Introduction
Frank Ankersmit

8. "The Burden of History" Forty Years Later
David Harlan

9. The Rhetorical Dialectic of Hayden White
Allan Megill

10. Does the Sublime Price Explanation Out of the Historical Market?
Hans Kellner

11. History Beyond the Pleasure Principle?
Dominick LaCapra

Part IV - Practice

Practice, an Introduction
Ewa Domanska

12. Figuring the Malvinas War Experience: Heuristic and History as an Unfulfilled Promise
Veronica Tozzi

13. Primo Levi for the Present
Judith Butler

14. Hayden White, Historian
Richard Vann

15. Hayden White: An Academic Teacher
Ewa Domanska

Click here to buy Re-Figuring Hayden White.

Philosophy of History After Hayden White, edited by Robert Doran

Book description

From Bloomsbury's website:

This anthology of new essays by an international group of preeminent scholars explores the ground-breaking work of Hayden White, whose thought, beginning with his seminal Metahistory (1973), has revolutionized the way we think about the philosophy of history, historiography, narrative, and the relation between history and literature. Representing a variety of disciplines and approaches, the contributions to this volume testify to the far-reaching effects and significance of White's philosophy of history. Individual essays relate White's ideas to contemporary art, cognitive studies, Heideggerian hermeneutics, experimental history, Kant's transcendental philosophy, analytic philosophy of history, Marxist cultural theory, the Kantian sublime, and American academic historiography.

A substantial introduction by the editor traces the genesis of White's philosophy of history, situating it with respect to both the Anglo-American and Continental traditions. The volume also features a previously unpublished essay by White, which offers a concise overview of his later thought, and a "Comment" written specifically for this volume, in which White revisits the question of the philosophy of history.

Table of contents

Introduction: Choosing the Past: Hayden White and the Philosophy of History
Robert Doran

1. History as Fulfillment
Hayden White

2. A Cognitivist Approach to Tropology
F. R. Ankersmit

3. Deliver Us from A-Historicism: Metahistory for Non-Historians
Mieke Bal

4. Hayden White's Hope, or the Politics of Prefiguration
Karyn Ball

5. Hayden White and Me: Two Systems of Philosophy of History
Arthur C. Danto

6. Uneven Temporalities / Untimely Pasts: Hayden White and the Question of Temporal Form
Harry Harootunian

7. Hopeful Monsters or, The Unfulfilled Figure in Hayden White's Conceptual System
Hans Kellner

8. Rhetorical Theory / Theoretical Rhetoric: Some Ambiguities in the Reception of Hayden White's Work
Gabrielle M. Spiegel

9. Hayden White and Non-non-Histories
Richard T. Vann

10. From the Problem of Evil to Hermeneutic Philosophy of History: For Hayden White
Gianni Vattimo

11. Comment
Hayden White

Click here to buy Philosophy of History After Hayden White.