Tomasz Wiśniewski

The project aims to develop a theoretical framework for postsecular interpretations of history. The research is based on the ideas proposed by the Indian historian Dipesh Chakrabarty in his influential work Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference (2000). The book had a significant impact on postcolonial studies, while simultaneously opening up a postsecular interpretive framework. In discussing “minority histories” and “subaltern pasts,” Chakrabarty attributed historical agency to supernatural beings such as gods and spirits. Tomasz Wiśniewski is interested in examining the ontological premises underlying Chakrabarty’s criticism of what he calls “the politics of historicism,” and intends to revisit Chakrabarty’s arguments within the context of both classical historicism and contemporary theoretical debates. In Wiśniewski’s view, the core issue lies not with historicism itself, but with the coexistence of mutually incommensurable historicities. The project aims to contrast secular and postsecular historicities, exposing the limitations of the former while exploring the divergences that give rise to the latter.