Haunting History

Deconstruction and the Spirit of Revision1

Bibliographic Data

ID4496155
AuthorsEthan Kleinberg (0000-0003-2282-170X, Wesleyan University, corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume46
Issue4
Pages113-143
Publication date2007-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistory and Theory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-2656 • E-ISSN: 1468-2303
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1468-2303.2007.00431.x
OpenAlexW2112717990
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited4

This essay explores the ways that the specter of deconstruction has been haunting history over the past thirty years, in particular this specter's effects on the revision of intellectual and cultural history. The essay uses the terms "specter" and "haunting" to express the fact that while deconstruction is repeatedly targeted in attacks against the dangers of postmodernism, poststructuralism, or the linguistic turn, very few historians actively use deconstruction as a historical methodology; in this regard the target has always been a phantom. However, some historians have employed the methods of deconstruction, and by examining their work as well as the attacks on it the essay attempts to explain the historiographical reasons behind these attacks. The goal of the essay is ultimately to indicate some of the ways that deconstruction is useful for the historian, as evidenced in the project of historical revision

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Deconstruction (building) · Epistemology · Historiography · Literature · Postmodernism · Sociology · Australian History and Society · History · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Philosophy · Philosophy, History, and Historiography

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