Historisches Erzählen in der Geographie

Abstract

Rüsen (1982) has observed four modes of narrating the history of a scientific discipline: traditional, exemplary, critical, genetic. My article applies them to the history of geography. While initially, the traditional and exemplary modes predominated, the critical mode has taken the lead in the past few decades. However, I argue that in the future, the genetic mode of narration, which is common in (the history of) historiography, should also be strengthened in geography.

Biographical Note

Ute Wardenga (SFB 1199 & Leibniz-Institut für Länderkunde, Leipzig, Germany)

Ute Wardenga is an honorary professor of global studies at Leipzig University (Germany) and serves on the executive boards of the Centre for Area Studies and the Graduate School Global and Area Studies. Since 2012, she has been the deputy director of the Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography in Leipzig where she coordinates the research group “History and Geography”. Ute Wardenga’s current research interests focus on geography as a space-related practice in the process of globalization and in this regard leads the SFB project C1, which compares international histories of geographical societies since the early 19th century. Most recently, she has co-directed the research project entitled “Digital Atlas of Geopolitical Imaginaries of Eastern Central Europe”, which explored the impact of cartographic and mass media representations of space in Eastern Central Europe since 1989.