Inheritance

Inheritance, heritage, legacy. These closely interrelated concepts serve as the connective tissue between generations, and have become a central topic of reflection in late-modern society. In his new monograph, Inheritance, he looks at this field through the prism of the German term Erbe, which encompasses the multiple meanings and spheres of influence of the concepts of inheritance, heritage, and legacy. This allows Reckwitz to provide a sweeping overview of the topic. Not only does he look at monetary inheritance left by parents to their children (the house, the trust fund), but also at emotional legacies (childhood and intergenerational trauma), cultural heritage (»national« heritage and stolen artefacts), as well as what might be described as the legacy of our modern forms of living (rubbish, »forever chemicals«, the felled rainforest, and climate change more generally). Inheritance presupposes a relationship between the dead, the living, and the not-yet-born, it draws a kind of transgenerational axis through our understanding of our society.

In this book, Reckwitz outlines a specific consciousness of inheritance in late modernity, the realisation that as individuals, social groups, national communities, and even as a species, have inherited something from the past, will do so in the future, and that we will also hand something down to coming generations. That this legacy might not be exclusively positive, but also negative, disastrous, or profoundly ambivalent is clear to us – something which sets us apart from previous generations. We are painfully aware of the fact that it is impossible not to inherit something. This book discusses why that is the case, how this realisation is being addressed in society (for example in cultural products such as the series Succession), and how it runs through public debates about issues such as public monuments, intergenerational justice, and climate change.