Experiencing the Outbreak of the First World War: A Critique of Cultural History
Experiencing the Outbreak of the First World War: A Critique of Cultural History
Author(s): Erik RingmarSubject(s): History, Cultural history, History of ideas, Recent History (1900 till today), Pre-WW I & WW I (1900 -1919)
Published by: ЮГОЗАПАДЕН УНИВЕРСИТЕТ »НЕОФИТ РИЛСКИ«
Keywords: First World War; Human experience; cultural history; war enthusiasm; bodily experience; revisionist interpretation; Augusterlebnis of 1914
Summary/Abstract: This article critiques cultural history’s tendency to reduce human experiences to social structures and discourse, neglecting the felt and embodied dimensions of historical events. Using the Augusterlebnis of 1914 as a case study, it challenges revisionist interpretations that dismiss war enthusiasm as propaganda or coercion. Instead, it argues that experiences are pre-discursive, shaped by bodily reactions and immediate perceptions. By overlooking the lived, sensory aspect of historical events, historians risk distorting the past. The article calls for a historiography that integrates both cognitive and embodied experiences to better understand how individuals truly experienced historical moments.
Journal: Балканистичен Форум
- Issue Year: 34/2025
- Issue No: 1
- Page Range: 13-32
- Page Count: 20
- Language: English
- Content File-PDF
