Europe in Front of its Colonial Past: The Question of Historiography

TY - JOUR

T1 - Europe in Front of its Colonial Past

T2 - The Question of Historiography

AU - Milioni, Anna

PY - 2021/7/19

Y1 - 2021/7/19

N2 - This paper employs Paul Ricœur’s insights to examine how European states should approach their colonial past. First, I explore the significance of historical knowledge for people from formerly colonized countries through the views of several anti-colonial thinkers. Then, referring to Ricoeur’s analyses in History and Truth, Time and Narrative and Memory, History, Forgetting, I examine the grounds and the legitimacy, of a historiography of colonization. I argue that European states should make the history of colonization part of their school curricula, as an expression of Europeans’ debt to the victims of the colonial past, and as a way to prevent the repetition of the colonial crimes.

AB - This paper employs Paul Ricœur’s insights to examine how European states should approach their colonial past. First, I explore the significance of historical knowledge for people from formerly colonized countries through the views of several anti-colonial thinkers. Then, referring to Ricoeur’s analyses in History and Truth, Time and Narrative and Memory, History, Forgetting, I examine the grounds and the legitimacy, of a historiography of colonization. I argue that European states should make the history of colonization part of their school curricula, as an expression of Europeans’ debt to the victims of the colonial past, and as a way to prevent the repetition of the colonial crimes.

KW - Ricœur

KW - Historiography

KW - Colonization

KW - injustice

U2 - 10.5195/errs.2021.525

DO - 10.5195/errs.2021.525

M3 - Article

SN - 2156-7808

VL - 12

SP - 90

EP - 105

JO - Etudes Ricoeuriennes/ Ricoeur Studies

JF - Etudes Ricoeuriennes/ Ricoeur Studies

IS - 1

ER -