ABSTRACT
By accentuating the fact that history is constantly experienced aesthetically–be it in novels, television, or computer games–scholars began dedicating their energy to studying the doing of history as a cultural practice in the everyday. Turning their attention to reenactment, scholars emphasized that history is more than the end result of narrative constructions. Since the history of the field is in the making, what lies in its past might be best described as a prehistory. Research in the areas of fine arts, dance scholarship, and performance studies—all concerned with the representation of history—contributed new perspectives on reenactment. Rebecca Schneider’s theoretical survey of the artistic potential of reenactment and her claim that embodied performance is of key significance for cultural memory in modern media cultures can therefore be read as a reply to Vanessa Agnew’s earlier proposal that historians take up the challenge of reenactment.
