CONTEMPORARY HISTORY AND THE ART OF SELF-DISTANCING.
The metaphor of historical distance often appears in discussions about the study of contemporary history. It suggests that we cannot see the past in perspective if we are too near to it. According to founding fathers like Ranke and Humboldt, temporal distance is required to discern historical 'ideas...
| Publicado en: | History & Theory Vol. 50; no. 4; pp. 51 - 68 |
|---|---|
| Autor principal: | |
| Formato: | Essay |
| Publicado: |
Wiley-Blackwell
Dec2011
|
| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=67611583&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 67611583 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00182656 HAT jtl: History & Theory issn: 00182656 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Dec2011 vid: 50 iid: 4 pid: 480 pub: Wiley-Blackwell artinfo: ui: 67611583 10.1111/j.1468-2303.2011.00603.x ppf: 51 ppct: 17 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 354KB tig: atl: CONTEMPORARY HISTORY AND THE ART OF SELF-DISTANCING. aug: au: DEN HOLLANDER, JAAP affil: University of Groningen su: Philosophy of history Perspective (Philosophy) Historians Historicism Subjectivity Nostalgia Historiography Attitude (Psychology) sug: subj: Philosophy of history Perspective (Philosophy) Historians Historicism Subjectivity Nostalgia Historiography Attitude (Psychology) ab: The metaphor of historical distance often appears in discussions about the study of contemporary history. It suggests that we cannot see the past in perspective if we are too near to it. According to founding fathers like Ranke and Humboldt, temporal distance is required to discern historical 'ideas' or forms. The argument may have some plausibility, but the presupposition is plainly false, since we cannot see the past at all. This leaves us with the question of what to make of the so-called historical forms. This article discusses three different views. The first, historicist, view is objectivist and localizes historical forms in the past. The second, narrativist, view is subjectivist and localizes historical forms in the realm of imagination and representation. The third view goes beyond the other two in that it considers both sides. It does not use a one-sided but a two-sided concept of form, which hinges on the idea of a distinction. This means that historical forms occupy both sides of the subject-object distinction or the present-past distinction. Because the subject-object terminology is confusing, the essay employs an alternative distinction between first- and second-order observation. With the help of this distinction, it is possible to redescribe the distance metaphor in such a way that the theoretical status of contemporary history becomes less enigmatic. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Essay src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of History & Theory is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: History & Theory holder: Wiley-Blackwell dt: @attributes: year: 2011 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
|---|