Location
German Historical Institute, London (and via Zoom)
Join us for a GHIL Lecture by Achim Landwehr (University of Konstanz).
European cultures tend to overlook voids, or, at best, see them as unpleasant phenomena. Yet voids are not only unavoidable, but actually constitutive in the emergence of European-Western modernity over the last four hundred years—which might now be coming to an end, possibly due to the excessive production of voids. Although the meaning of emptiness was certainly not first conceived in the seventeenth century, empty spaces took on a new role in this early modern period. There were of course the well-known vacuum experiments, but other voids were gaining in importance too: white spots in cartography, the concept of ‘terra nullius’, speculative bubbles, and the technical-military possibilities of extensive destruction, for instance. Voids are thus not only disturbing phenomena or regrettable losses, but crucial constitutive elements in European modernity.
Achim Landwehr is Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Konstanz. In his research, he has investigated questions of early modern statehood and aspects of time and the present in the seventeenth century, but has also repeatedly worked on questions of historical theory.
This lecture will take place as a hybrid event at the GHIL and online via Zoom. In order to attend this event, please register via our website to take part in person or online: https://www.ghil.ac.uk/events/lectures.
Image: The Center for Land Use Interpretation, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0