A new cultural epoch is recognized only retrospectively after its preconditions jell.

Evidence

In periodizing a phenomenon of this kind, we have to complicate the model with all kinds of supplementary epicycles. It is necessary to distinguish between the gradual setting in place of the various (often unrelated) preconditions for the new structure and the “moment” (not exactly chronological) when they all jell and combine into a functional system. This moment is itself less a matter of chronology than it is of a wellnigh Freudtan Nachtroglichkeit, or retroactivity: people become aware of the dynamics of some new system, in which they are themselves seized, only later on and gradually. — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 28

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces Nachtroglichkeit/retroactivity as the mechanism by which a settled cultural system comes to awareness.
• XREF: Connects to Althusser’s ‘structure in dominance’ vs Hegelian ‘essential cross section’ — a distinction relevant to testing whether Jameson’s cultural-dominant thesis is falsifiable. — connects to: Sameness across history is knowable only through what is new. — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia: Reflections from…, 256; Postwar Americanized mass culture opened a new historical conjuncture visible only in retrospect — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 161; A new culture develops only with changing social relations and state formation. (+3 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Sameness across history is knowable only through what is new. — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia: Reflections from…, 256; Postwar Americanized mass culture opened a new historical conjuncture visible only in retrospect — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 161; A new culture develops only with changing social relations and state formation. (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Postmodern culture mirrors anterograde amnesia, clinging to old certainties while newness stays unnavigable #complicates (0.76) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 122