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Warburg and the Warburgian Tradition of Cultural History

1995; Duke University Press; Issue: 65 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/488533

1558-1462

Michael Diers, Thomas Girst, Dorothea von Moltke,

Multidisciplinary Warburg-centric Studies

Almost forgotten for decades, above all in Germany, the works of the art historian Aby Warburg (1866-1929) have become topical again in an exceptional way far beyond the confines of his own field. This is due to the specific claim and program of Warburg's scholarship rather than to the output of his factual research. As Jacob Burckhardt's successor and a student of the historian Karl Lamprecht, the Hamburg scholar's entire work is emphatically devoted to cultural-historical [kulturhistorisch] research. The current relevance of the so-called Warburg method is founded precisely upon this interdisciplinary, problem-oriented, and integrative determination of the tasks in his field. Recourse to a scientific tradition of the twenties has made possible a present which discusses the term culture anew, which contemplates a revision of the concept of cultural history, and for which cultural science [Kulturwissenschaft] as model becomes interesting again in terms of self-understanding. Since about 1980, there has been much discussion, particularly in Germany,' about an updated and advanced concept of cultural science, a reflection which has already been embodied in the founding of numerous institutions. A process of integration of the sciences, which was programmatic for Warburg even in his days, is at issue once again, a process which, as Walter Benjamin - who was