The Reason why Chronologies Exist

What makes reading easier? A text divided in parts (paragraphs, bullets, chapters etc.) is easier to the eye and the brain than a text without any divisions. This is valid not only for academic texts, but for literary texts such as novels or epics, that was probably the reason why the Odyssey was divided into twenty four chapters when it became one of the most commonly read texts in many European schools. Marshall Brown, in his article “Periods and Resistances” evaluates the ways of dividing a text into parts, one of which he labels as periodization. He categorizes periodization as relational, which is, chapters in relation with the other chapters of the text (such as Renaissance, neoclassicism), expressional (such as people’s names or accomplishment like industrial revolution) and finally derivational from ideas (for instance Enlightenment, realism) (313).

Brown argues that chronological periodization seems to be the most neutral one when compared with the others (312). Yet, in regards to chronological periodization, he comments in “Theory without Method Criticism without Voice” that it may interrupt the thematic connections between texts written in different time periods or may lead to anachronistic organization of texts which are responses to each other (453). Those are the drawbacks of the most neutral periodization technique. However, I have a more fundamental reservation against chronological periodization: What will be the starting point of a chronological periodization and what does that mean?

Chronological periodization needs a starting point. Although, chronological periodization seems the most neutral, it still may be relational. The starting point of a chronology may represent political viewpoints or philosophical necessities. For instance, while some chronologists may chose to include some territories to the philosophical periodization of a culture, the same area may be excluded from the modern political classifications of geography. This is the case in any encyclopedia or textbook of Western civilization. Cultural history of Europe starts with a territory which Europe distinguishes from itself as the Near East today. On the other hand, while the chronological Western civilization text books begin with the Near East, the chronological texts books of western literary theory or western philosophy begin with texts created in the geography where Greece is located now, much like the Odyssey, which is considered as one of the first examples of European literature. Therefore, the most neutral technique of periodization, chronological periodization, becomes a tool for the legitimization of political choices. Chronology legitimizes the past; the beginning of a chronology equals the origins of a tradition. Consequently, chronologies may take the role of legitimizing myths, which play the roles of legitimizing political power. Manifestation of a point of in history as the beginning of a tradition means claiming possession to a common creation in history.

What makes reading easier is a text divided into sections. Periodization is a way of dividing a text into readable (and still comprehensible) parts. Writers and editors have chosen varied styles of periodization, among which, chronological has been labeled as one of the most neutral ones. However, chronology as a technique demonstrates political and historical choices that work in favor of legitimizing the origins of a social group.