Origins and Futures: Time Inflected and Reflected the Study of Time
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Origins and Futures: Time Inflected and Reflected The Study of Time Founding Editor J.T. Fraser VOLUME 14 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/stim Origins and Futures: Time Inflected and Reflected Edited by Raji C. Steineck and Claudia Clausius LEIDEn • bOSTON 2013 Cover illustration: Vienna, Schönbrunn gardens, statue Janus and Bellona. http://commons.wiki media.org/wiki/File:N29Janus-u-Bellona.jpg, author: schurl50. This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. ISSN 0170-9704 ISBN 978-90-04-25168-7 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-25200-4 (e-book) Copyright 2013 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers and Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. CONTENTS Obituary ............................................................................................................. ix List of Contributors ........................................................................................ xi Acknowledgements ........................................................................................ xv Introduction ..................................................................................................... 1 Raji Steineck and Claudia Clausius SECTION I Origins Explained Founder’s Lecture: The Origin of the Integrated Study of Time ...... 15 J.T. Fraser The Search for Origins as Detective Story: Detecting Datelines and the Mystery of Origins .................................................................... 25 Paul A. Harris On the Social Origin of Time in Language ............................................. 37 Walter Schweidler The Origins of Language and Narrative Temporalities ....................... 49 Rosemary Huisman SECTION II From Future to Origin: Temporal Inversions and Asymmetries Narrative Fiction: Writing towards the Origin ...................................... 79 Sabine Gross Origins as Futures in the Time Plays of J.B. Priestley .......................... 103 Carol Fischer vi contents Big Science: Marching Forward to the Past ............................................ 123 Michael Crawford The Past-Future Asymmetry ........................................................................ 139 Friedel Weinert SECTION III Futures Opened, Futures Closed The Human Temporal Condition between Memory and Hope ....... 169 Steven Ostovich Bachelard’s “Discontinuous Bergsonism” in Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat”: How Self-Generation of “Pure Time” Engenders Free Choice ............................................................................ 189 Patricia McCloskey Engle Tales of Time and Terror: Walter Benjamin’s Philosophy of History and the Narrative Aesthetics of Edgar Allan Poe ............. 207 Marcus Bullock The Future of August 6th 1945: A Case of the ‘Peaceful Utilization’ of Nuclear Energy in Japan ..................................................................... 235 Masae Yuasa Forgiveness as the Opening of the Future .............................................. 259 Karmen MacKendrick Index ................................................................................................................... 281 Julius T. Fraser (1923–2010) OBITUARY Julius T. Fraser died November 20th, 2010 in Westport, Connecticut, and a great number and diversity of people internationally mourned his passing. Professor Frederick Turner (University of Texas, Dallas) summed him up well: “J.T. Fraser is arguably the most important philosopher of the twen- tieth century. Like Aquinas, and like Aristotle before him, he has created the very arena within which philosophy will be conducted for the next few decades, perhaps centuries.” In a review of one of his books, the Times Higher Education Supplement in 1990 declared: “The conceptual appara- tus Fraser has built up is . of almost unprecedented breadth.” Professor George M. O’Har (Boston College) commented regarding Fraser’s book Time, Conflict, and Human Values, “the book is a treasure trove of imagi- native scholarship and wisdom of a kind so rarely seen today as to be almost extinct.” Fraser was born in Budapest, Hungary on the 7th of May, 1923. His ancestry made for difficult times during the Second World War, but with the collapse of the Nazis life did not become any easier. He managed to escape to the west from a Soviet labour brigade, and he eventually arrived penniless in New York City. Working at whatever he could lay hands to, he eventually trained as an engineer in the United States where his suc- cessful patents on microwave devices allowed him to complete a PhD at the age of 40 at the University of Hannover, Germany. Fraser was remark- able for more than just his intellect and drive: striving to make sense of his experiences during the war, he came to realize that all human life, philosophy, and endeavor could be understood through an analysis of temporal experience. This led him to assemble a framework within which diverse intellectual traditions could converse productively. He could only have constructed his Hierarchical Theory of Time by becoming a master of hugely disparate fields—to do so he came to exemplify the sort of poly- math Natural Philosopher that has not been seen since the turn of the last century when physics, biology, cosmology, etc., were considerably simpler and more tractable. In the mid 1960s he founded the International Society for the Study of Time, which gives the term “interdisciplinarity” a head- stretching workout. The Society has acted as a nexus for vigorous and challenging debate among broad-minded philosophers, physicists, social scientists, literary critics, psychologists, historians, biologists, judges, authors, artists, musicians, etc. ever since. x obituary Despite his intimidating intellect “JT,” as he was known to his friends, was a small man, and blue eyes penetrated playfully from beneath a brown bald head. What struck you most upon meeting him was his warmth, gen- erosity, and humanity. How many academic careers has this man helped to nurture and launch? His good humour and mellifluous voice could lull you into a false sense of security before the spark of his riveting and broad-ranging conversation struck. If you were lucky, you found yourself challenged, taxed, and happily exhausted from the workout. He enjoyed his colleagues and friends, and traveled extensively with his indefatigable and engaging wife Jane, lecturing and conferencing his way across the globe. While he was ever the cultural sophisticate, he was not above put- ting the after-dinner tea cozy on his head to amuse the children while discussing Kierkegaard, Malthus, or Hawking with his hosts. If there were a Nobel Prize for performing a vitally integrative function, the cross- disciplinary discourse this man ignited would have won him recognition in an instant. He had declined rapidly over the last year of his life, and his body was no longer able to keep measure with his coursing mind. A huge intellect and a deep soul, the greatest Timesmith of them all passed quietly in the company of his wife and family. We are the poorer for the loss. LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS Marcus Bullock is Professor Emeritus in the English Department of the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and Research Associate in Com- parative Literature at UW-Madison. He collaborated as co-editor on the Harvard edition of Walter Benjamin’s Selected Writings and has published books or essays on Walter Benjamin, Ernst Jünger, Franz Kafka, Friedrich Schlegel, Alfred Andersch, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Julia Kristeva, Jacques Derrida, and Martin Heidegger. Claudia Clausius (PhD) received graduate degrees from Oxford Univer- sity and the University of Toronto. Currently, she is Associate Professor and Chair in the Department of Modern Languages at King’s University College at Western University, Canada. Her on-going research interests focus on the intersection between modern art and contemporary drama. She is currently also editor of KronoScope: Journal for the Study of Time. Michael Crawford (PhD) is Professor of Biology at the University of Windsor in Canada. His research interests focus upon embryology, gene regulation, and more recently, upon the role of temporal pressures at the interface of scientific enterprise and public perception. Like the Human Genome Project, he is past middle age and finds himself looking retro- spectively with an element of delight and surprise . Patricia McCloskey Engle, PhD, teaches in the Language and Literature Department at Bucks County Community College. Her scholarly work has appeared in DQR Studies in Literature, Explicator, and Lehigh University’s online Literature of Justification project. She is a past editor of the Arts- bridge Writers’ Gallery, and her