Future Past. Time and Teleology in (Ancient) Historiography

The historian’s account of the past is strongly shaped by the future of the events narrated. The telos, that is the vantage-point from which the past is envisaged, influences the selection of the material as well as its arrangement. While the telos is past for historian and reader, it is future for historical agents. The term ‘future past’, coined by Koselleck to highlight the fact that the future was seen differently before the Sattelzeit, also lends itself to capturing this asymmetry and elucidating its ramifications for the writing of history. The first part of the essay elaborates on the notion of ‘future past’: besides considering its significance and pitfalls, I offset it against the perspectivity of historical knowledge and the concept of narrative closure (I). Then the works of two ancient historians, Polybius and Sallust, serve as test-cases that illustrate the intricacies of ‘future past’. Neither has received much credit for intellectual sophistication in scholarship, and yet the different narrative strategies deployed by Polybius and Sallust reveal profound reflections on the temporal dynamics of writing history (II). While the issue of ‘future past’ is particularly pertinent to the strongly narrative historiography of antiquity, the controversy about the end of the Roman Republic demonstrates that it also applies to the works of modern historians (III). Finally I will argue that ‘future past’ alerts us to an aspect of how we relate to the past that is in danger of being obliterated in the current debate on ‘presence’ and history. While the past is present in customs, relics and rituals, the historiographic construction of the past is predicated on a complex hermeneutical operation that involves the choice of a telos. The concept of ‘future past’ also differs from post-structuralist theories through its emphasis on time. Retrospect calms the flow of time, but is unable to arrest it fully, as the openness of the past survives in the form of ‘future past’ (IV)

Lessing's Laocoon and the 'as-if' of aesthetic experience

In this chapter Jonas Grethlein tackles the shared but distinct aesthetic mechanics of responding to narratives and pictures. After taking into account ‘deconstructionist’ readings of Laocoon, Grethlein argues that Lessing’s insights are fundamental for articulating how aesthetic experience works. Reformulating Lessing’s categories of temporal ‘poetry’ and spatial ‘painting’, while also concentrating on aesthetic response rather than formal medial difference, Grethlein renders Lessing’s essay into a guide for approaching the poles of what he labels ‘narratives’ and ‘pictures’. According to Grethlein, Lessing’s arguments concerning ‘poetry’ and ‘painting’ can help to advance a phenomenological argument about the ‘as if’ (in Kendall Walton’s terms) of aesthetic experience.</p

Choral intertemporality in the Oresteia

One of the most salient aspects of the chorus in Greek tragedy is its mediation between the play and the audience. Schlegel's view of the chorus as ‘ideal spectator’ has recently been taken up and refined by Claude Calame, who argues that, besides embodying a specific group in the dramatic action, the chorus also merges the voices of the author and the audience. The mediation between the actors and the audience is obvious in the spatial position of the choreutai who, after the parodos, come to stand in the orchestra. Here, between the stage and the theatron, they sing, dance and follow the dramatic action. In this paper, I would like to turn to time and argue that, though less obviously than space, time is also crucial to the mediating function of the chorus. It is a commonplace that tragedy brings together a heroic past with the democratic present. While ‘heroic vagueness’ marks the time of the action as different from the present of the performance, ‘zooming-devices’ establish links to the world of the spectators. The distance of the heroic world as well as polyphony allows tragedy to negotiate issues controversial in the polis of Athens. At first sight, the chorus, often representing marginal groups and using the Doric of Greek lyric in their songs, may seem to distance the action from the world of the audience. At the same time, the ‘song culture’ of ancient Greece provides the audience with a frame in which choral songs have direct significance. In exploring the complex temporality of the Greek chorus, I would like to show that the choral odes contribute much to the dialogue between past and present enacted in tragedy, that intertemporality is an important aspect of the chorus’ mediation

Histology driven systemic therapy of liposarcoma-ready for prime time?

Liposarcomas are a subtype of soft tissue sarcomas arising from adipocytes. These mesenchymal tumors have been sub classified into well differentiated liposarcoma (WDLPS), dedifferentiated liposarcoma (DDLPS), myxoid liposarcoma (MLPS) and pleomorphic liposarcoma (PLPS). This article reviews what has been reported regarding the responsiveness of these sarcoma subtypes to traditional and newly developed systemic therapies. The evolution of molecular targets for therapeutic intervention within the distinct histologies is discussed, along with, available evidence regarding the efficacy of novel target directed therapies. Response rates and outcomes for advanced disease therapeutic trials comprises the majority of this information, and where available, data from adjuvant therapy trials is reviewed. Overall survival for patients with advanced liposarcoma treated with systemic therapy is 16.3 months. The article addresses our progress toward the goal of improved liposarcoma outcomes through tailored interventions