The Varieties of Temporal Experience: Travels in Philosophical, Historical, and Ethnographic Time

What does it mean to live in time, between the unforeseeable and the irreversible? In The Varieties of Temporal Experience, Michael Jackson demonstrates the significance of a phenomenology of time for ethnography, philosophy, and history through a multifaceted consideration of the gap between our cultural representations of temporality and the bewildering multiplicity of our experience of being-in-time. Jackson explores temporality in a subjective mode as a form of literary anthropology. The first part of the book tells the story of John Joseph Pawelka, whose 1910 escape from prison and subsequent disappearance became one of New Zealand's great unsolved mysteries, discussing what it reveals about the interplay of popular stories, hidden histories, and media narratives in constructing allegories of national and moral identity. In the second, Jackson reflects on journeys up and down the islands of New Zealand, touching on the ways that personal stories are interwoven with social and historical events. Throughout this groundbreaking book, Jackson juxtaposes philosophy, history, and ethnography in an attempt to do justice to the extraordinary variety of temporal experience, at the same time exploring the ethical and existential quandaries that arise from the complexity of lived time.

About the Author :
Michael Jackson is Distinguished Professor of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School. His Columbia University Press books include As Wide as the World Is Wise: Reinventing Philosophical Anthropology (2016) and The Work of Art: Rethinking the Elementary Forms of Religious Life (2016).

Review :
This is a rich and highly important work of anthropological thought and creative writing. Through a deft combination of creative nonfiction, ethnographic fieldwork, and autobiographical reflections, Michael Jackson explores the ways that human beings engage with processes of time, history (both personal and collective), memory, and relationships in dynamic, multiple, and pragmatic ways.--Robert Desjarlais, Sarah Lawrence College The Varieties of Temporal Experience is at once ethnographic and biographical. It is about story-telling as a way of repairing the past, but also about the burden of stories and the possibility to live from the present.-- "Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute" The Varieties of Temporal Experience is a gripping, challenging work that brings a unique voice to questions about how we experience time. To enable the reader to dwell in experiences of time in its variety and to experience firstness, providing gentle nudges but not overwhelming the reader with a heavy apparatus, is no small achievement.--Veena Das, Johns Hopkins University In his latest work, Michael Jackson explores enigmas of the past and how stories help us to make our lives easier to live. Jackson's anthropology draws out the vivid particularities of human experience and spins them into webs of connectivity across time, space, and culture. Like everything else Jackson has written, The Varieties of Temporal Experience juxtaposes philosophy and everyday knowledge in precise and compassionate ways. And the writing is so good, it aches to put this book down.--Dominic Boyer, Rice University This remarkable book traces how a complex tapestry of interlocking temporalities configures our experience. Taking us on a journey across a breathtaking range of moments as a story unfolds, and drawing on a diverse anthropological, literary, and philosophical archive, Jackson sheds light on what it means to live with stories of different times--from the historical to the mythological, the mundane to the fantastic. These stories remind us that life is often uncannily stitched across various temporalities and selves. The Varieties of Temporal Experience is an insightful contribution from one of the humanities' most sophisticated and original voices.--Andrew Brandel, Harvard University