The Meaning of Literary History

S THE historian's activity entirely retrospective? It is true that the object of his preoccupation indubitably belongs to the past. But his project is rooted in the here-and-now: in his personal life, the historian precedes the history he will write. If he turns to already existing documents and works, it is with the intention of creating a new work which tomorrow will itself become a document. Moreover, this project, especially if it pertains to literary history, cannot be dissociated from the totality of other projects-whether literary, scientific, or philosophicalwhich will define the cultural climate of the future. One should go so far as to affirm that literary history-be it of the most academic, most scientific variety, be it of the kind which is, at least in appearance, most clearly untouched by the theories professed by the writers of the avantgarde-is ultimately linked with literature in the making: whether we approve or condemn, we are indebted to what is thought and written by our contemporaries, to the conditions in which we all seek our way. As for the avant-garde itself, however great its contempt for the type of narrative history which takes stock of everything that could lay claim to the prestigious name of rare are those among its representatives who do not look to the past for precedents and support, and who, in order to justify their undertakings, do not on occasion themselves become historians (of the most partial and selective kind). Literature in the making, as well perhaps as our conception of what literature ought in the future to be, plays an important part in our definition of what will become history. this, as is all too obvious, the situation of the literary historian does not appreciably differ from that of any other historian.1 His choice, when selecting a topic of research, is an expression of his present interests. In choosing his subject, the historian is in fact choosing himself. 2 More particularly in connection with literature, one should start by observing that both criticism and history arose and began to constitute a specific area of intellectual activity only after prevailing literary practice itself had begun to take on a distinctive, specific definition amidst the variety of social activities. A first instance of this can be seen in what remains of Aristotle's Poetics, which opens precisely with an account of the

Art · Epistemology · History of literature · Linguistics · Literature · Meaning (existential) · History · Philosophy · Poetry Analysis and Criticism · Shakespeare, Adaptation, and Literary Criticism · Themes in Literature Analysis

• Jean Starobinski and the history of the human sciences

  Open Access•F Vidal•History of the Human Sciences•1992

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