Mixed Messages
The Heterogeneity of Historical Discourse
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4495404 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Steven Crowell (0000-0002-3571-7285, Rice University, corresponding author), Steven G Crowell |
| Year | 1998 |
| Volume | 37 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 220-244 |
| Publication date | 1998-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | History and Theory (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0018-2656 • E-ISSN: 1468-2303 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/0018-2656.00050 |
| OpenAlex | W2063648410 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
If, as many historians and theorists now believe, narrative is the formproper to historical explanation, this raises the problem of the terms in which such narratives areto be evaluated. Without a clear account of evaluation, the status of historical knowledge (both initself and in all those social, political, and other contexts in which appeal to historical explanationis made) remains obscure. Beginning with the view, found in Hayden White and others, thathistorical narrative constitutes a meaning not reducible to the factual content it engages, thisessay argues that such meaning can arise only through a synthesis of cognitive and normativediscourses. Narrative combines "heterogeneous" language games in such a waythat neither appeal to "truth content" nor to "justice" suffices todecide the question of which of two competing historical explanations is, as a whole, superior.Examining in critical detail the opposed positions on this issue articulated by two recenttheorists-Frank Ankersmit ("narrative idealism") and David Carr("narrative realism")-the paper concludes that the debate between thosewho hold that historical narratives should be judged in essentially cognitive terms and those whohold that they should be judged in essentially political terms cannot be resolved and that aphilosophical view of historical narrative that is neither realist nor idealist needs to be developed
Aesthetics · Appeal · Carr · Epistemology · Idealism · Linguistics · Meaning (existential · Narrative · Narrative criticism · Narrative history · Narrative inquiry · Narrative network · Narrative psychology · Political science · Politics · Realism · Sociology · White (mutation · Law · Philosophy · Philosophy, History, and Historiography
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,19 |
| Citation span | 2005 - 2020 (16) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |