Eintrag weiter verarbeiten
Buchumschlag von New Historicism: Postmodern Historiography Between Narrativism and Heterology
Verfügbar über Online-Ressource

New Historicism: Postmodern Historiography Between Narrativism and Heterology

Gespeichert in:

Bibliographische Detailangaben
Zeitschriftentitel: History and Theory
Personen und Körperschaften: Pieters, Jürgen
In: History and Theory, 39, 2000, 1, S. 21-38
Medientyp: E-Article
Sprache: Englisch
veröffentlicht:
Wiley
Schlagwörter:
Details
Zusammenfassung: <jats:p>In recent discussionsof the work of new historicist critics like Stephen Greenblatt and Louis Montrose, it has oftenbeen remarked that the theory of history underlying their reading practice closely resembles thatof postmodern historiographers like Hayden White and Frank Ankersmit. Taking off from onesuch remark, the aim of the present article is twofold. First, I intend to provide a theoretical basisfrom which to substantiate the idea that new historicism can indeed be taken to be the literary‐critical variant of what Frank Ankersmit has termed the “new historiography.” Inthe second half of the article, this theoretical foundation will serve as the starting point of afurther analysis of both the theory and practice of new historicism in terms of its distinctlypostmodern historiographical project. I will argue that in order to fully characterize the newhistoricist reading method, we do well to distinguish between two variants of postmodernhistoricism: a narrativist one (best represented in the work of Michel Foucault) and aheterological one (of which Michel de Certeau's writings serve as a supreme example). Abrief survey of the two methodological options associated with these variants (discursive versuspsychoanalytical) is followed by an analysis of the work of the central representative of newhistoricism, Stephen Greenblatt. While the significant use of historical anecdotes in his workleaves unresolved the question to which of either approaches Greenblatt belongs, the distinctiondoes serve a clear heuristic purpose. In both cases, it points to the dangerous spot where the newhistoricism threatens to fall prey to the evils of the traditional historicism against which it defineditself.</jats:p>
Umfang: 21-38
ISSN: 0018-2656
1468-2303
DOI: 10.1111/0018-2656.00111