Abstract

If the notion of history and in particular the idea that a philosophy of history is necessary to man's projects, are characteristic of modernity , what can be said of the notion of history in postmodern thought? ;Nietzsche's critique of Hegelian history is first examined. I then reinterpret Nietzsche's notion of "creative forgetting" as a postmodern way of thinking about history. Moreover, I try to show that if Nietzsche inaugurates postmodernity through his radical undermining of the concepts and values which founded modernity, he is also the first to warn us against the possible danger and abuse involved in thinking about history in post-historical terms. ;This pitfall is not avoided by Derrida's own critique of history. Realizing that it is impossible to think in non-metaphysical terms and hence to overcome modernity, Derrida situates his thought at the end of history, in a posthistory that he calls deconstruction. Deconstruction designates then not only Derrida's discursive strategy but our posthistorical epoch itself. Derrida however claims an emancipatory effect for deconstruction, and yet he refuses to propose a postmodern notion of "history" which would legitimize or found his postmodern politics. Derrida therefore remains deaf to the historical imperative he himself proclaims: "Il faut l'histoire". ;In the last section I suggest ways in which this historical imperative can and must be answered. Thus, I situate Derrida's work within the context of Western culture's attempts to come to terms with the Holocaust. If after Auschwitz the modernist models of philosophy of history are discredited, the necessity of a philosophy of history remains. Nietzsche's lessons must be heeded. Modiano's works can be read as an example of Nietzsche's "creative forgetting". This form of forgetting is essentially a form of memory, albeit a borrowed, appropriated memory which nevertheless may allow postmodernity to come to terms with its past without forgetting it; reorient our projects away from the nostalgia of a pre-modern, pre-historical, pre-holocaust, pre-metaphysical past towards a future one is no longer afraid to build