ENDS
AND BEGINNINGS
Interdisciplinary
Conference
Goethe Institute Sydney / University of New South Wales
14-16
July 2000
Unlike Walter Benjamin's Angel of History,
the Roman God Janus had the useful ability to look forward and backward at the
same time. As Benjamin himself stressed, revolutionary movements have always
linked the beginning of the new with the apocalyptic end of the old: "the
awareness that they are about to make the continuum of history explode is
characteristic of the revolutionary classes at the moment of their
action". He sees the introduction of a new calendar by the French revolutionaries
as symbolising this awareness.
At the end of the century, Janus seems
unemployed. The collapse of Soviet communism certainly has the magnitude of a
"continuum-exploding event", but it seems to lack both the
apocalyptic and millenarian dimensions. The "velvet revolutions" are
unique in their lack of a "sense of beginning" and, increasingly, of
a "sense of ending" - they were not driven by visions of a new
society rising from the ashes of the old, but by the desire to assimilate to
Western models and to resume earlier continuities. In a recent article, Martin
Krygier has demonstrated the problematic character of this situation - the
"new start" which is so manifestly needed seems threatened on the one
side by the fruitless attempt to graft abstract management systems onto a
resistant culture, and on the other by a mounting "cultural
pessimism" which ends by denying the possibility of any new start.
Are "new starts" still possible in
the twenty-first century, or have we exhausted the energy needed to
"explode the continuum"? Was Fukuyama right, in a sense he didn't
intend? The Centre for European Studies at UNSW and the Goethe
Institute Sydney are organising a conference in Sydney from 14-16 July 2000
in the hope that a focus on this issue, and the study of other ends and
beginnings, may help to disturb the current mood of chaotic stasis.
The
Friday sessions at UNSW are free and open to the general public.
PROGRAM
Friday 14 July
McCauley Theatre, Quadrangle
Building [QUAD1027]
University of New South Wales
9.30-12.30: Opening panel
A CHANGE IN CHANGE?
John Milfull, European Studies, UNSW
The end of whose history? Whose end of history?
Michael Wilding, English, Sydney
"But what hast thou to say on Paradise found?"
James Goodman, Humanities, UTS
Globalisation and nationalism: whither Nairn's 'Modern Janus'?
James Donald, Media and Communications,
Curtin
"Fail again, fail better"
14.00- 17.00
MARKET FUTURES?
Andras Bozoki, Central European University,
Budapest
The Meanings of "End" and "Beginning" in the Political
Discourse of the Regime Change (East Central Europe, 1989)
John Loughlin, European Studies, Cardiff
The European Union - a successful "new start"?
Rouben Azizian, Political Science, Auckland
Russia under Putin: a new beginning or an old end?
Saturday 15 July
Goethe Institut, 90 Ocean St, Woollahra
10.00 - 12.30
BEGINNING AGAIN
Dirk Moses, History, Sydney
The Languages of Republicanism and the Foundation of West Germany
Günter Minnerup, German Studies, Birmingham
Revolution No. 9 - The Ambiguities of 1968
Emilio Fernandez-Castano,Ambassador of Spain,
Canberra
Spain's "new start" after Franco
14.00-17.00
MORTGAGES
John Merson, History and Philosophy of
Science, UNSW
The Weight of History: Traumatic memory and the ends of beginnings
Michael Wesley, Political Science, UNSW
Ends and Beginnings in Pacific Asia: Between Trauma and Triumphalism
Aleksandar
Pavkovic, European Studies, Macquarie
National liberations in former Yugoslavia: when will they end?
Peter Kuch, English, UNSW
Out of Ireland?
Sunday 16 July
Goethe Institut, 90 Ocean St, Woollahra
9.30-11.00
THE REVOLUTIONARY DAWN
Margaret Lindley, History, Tasmania
Revolutionary Theatrics: pointing the way
Martyn Lyons, History, UNSW
Eternity Begins Here: the French Revolutionary Calendar of 1793
11.15-13.00
THEN AND NOW
Ulrike Poppe, Berlin
Disappointed Hopes? What happened to the East German Revolution?
Barbara Einhorn, Women's Studies, Sussex
Dream and realities: What we Wanted, What We Got
14.00-16.30
BEGINNING WITHOUT END OR END WITHOUT
BEGINNING?
EAST-CENTRAL EUROPE SINCE 1989
Martin Krygier, Law, UNSW
Post-anti-communist thoughts on civil society and the rule of law
Adam Czarnota, Law, UNSW
Time, Collective Memories and Legal Continuity