Elias and the German Cultural Crisis I: The Crisis

Abstract

That Norbert Elias chose to begin his account of the nature and significance of civilizing processes with an extended and complex discussion of the 'Sociogenesis of the Concepts of "Civilization" and "Culture"', and to set that discussion firmly and specifically in the context of a long-running debate about the contrast between Kultur and Zivilisation, has been, understandably, a source of 'puzzlement' (see Mennell, 1992:12). Indeed, the relevance of this first long 'chapter' to what follows may be so unclear to many modern English-speaking readers approaching Ehas's work for the first time, and its potential difficulty for those who 'lack a detailed knowledge of French and German history and literature' (Mennell, 1992:36) so great, that Stephen Mennell was inclined to suggest in the earlier (1989) edition of his introduction to Elias's work that we simply 'omit this section at first reading' (see 36).l This begs a number of questions which may turn out to be highly significant, however. These include, most obviously: why is it there? why did Elias so deliberately choose to begin his analysis in this way? why did he set his work so firmly within the context of precisely this debate? These lead us to ask, further, what relevance might an understanding of that debate - of its history, categories, contours and significance - have for a more complete understanding of Elias's intentions ssand results?