Abstract

After History, the Event ? Our aim in this article is to reflect on the reasons lying behind the current fascination with the concept of the event. A belief in the Event has taken the place of the belief in History. The concept of the Event in no sense constitutes a step beyond the metaphy-sical. It is, on the contrary, the new guise of the latter. Our initial aim is therefore to outline our hypothesis, placing it alongside other possible dia-gnoses. We then seek to attempt the pragmatic validation of our argument concerning the concept of the Event, arguing that the advantage of our hypothesis is that it offers a more adequate account of our present historical moment, which may perhaps be qualified as merely the precarious conjunc-tion between the Event, Globalisation, and Memory. And so it is that, after History, our moment is that of the Event, understood as the categorical hypo-stasis of the event. As such, the concept is, we argue, one which is not to be celebrated too hastily, in case one were to end up howling with the wolves