Paper short abstract:

From a more actor-centered perspective the performing of historically warranted incidents (reenactment) appears to be a less deficient romanticizing of the past. Rather more diverse and ambivalent motivations become evident, even utopian negotiations of a better society, of "home".

Paper long abstract:

When the so-called "Battle of the Nations" was performed in nearby Leipzig (Germany) in 2013 on the occasion of its 200th anniversary, some reporters expressed a certain alienation considering the costly staged reenactment of the historical combat operations. In their eyes it came close to an inappropriate "spectacle somewhere between a fair and the commemoration of a gory massacre" (quote from ZEIT Online 2013). But the performative dealing with history also takes place in private or semi-public spheres aside from such large events and as part of leisure activities.

From a more actor-centered perspective - which is surprisingly underrepresented in the contemporary research of "doing history" - the phenomenon appears to be a less deficient romanticizing of the past. Rather more diverse and ambivalent motivations and notions become evident - in particular concrete negotiations of "home".

On the basis of first results from a current ethnographic research project I'd like to discuss emic understandings and "makings" of home and intrepret reenacting as a "resonant relationship to a re-appropriated piece of the world" (Hartmut Rosa, "Resonanz", 2016, p. 602) - in other words: as a satisfying and meaningful way of dealing with the "foreign" and the "self". In a slightly exaggerated way one could support the hypothesis, that reenactments (especially reenactments of historical everyday life) - understood as a cultural technique of dwelling (being at home) in the past - can also be seen as an utopian effort for answers to self-experienced deficits of the (post-)modern age.