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Citation: 

Rüsen, Jörn. “Historical Consciousness: Narrative Structure, Moral Function, and Ontogenetic Development.” In Theorizing Historical Consciousness, edited by Peter Seixas, 63-85. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004.

Abstract/Summary: 

In this chapter, first published in History and Memory in 1989, Jörn Rüsen defines four ways of using history (or four types of historical consciousness) by telling a story about the historical relationship between two Scottish clans and the ways this relationship could be interpreted in the present. Rüsen defines historical consciousness as a meaningful nexus between past, present, and future – a way to translate the past into the present for the future – and that a value-laden interpretation of history can generally translate into four types of historical consciousness: traditional, exemplary, critical, or generic. Using s

Source/Credit: 
Cutrara