Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword by Peter Kivy
- Introduction
- PART I BEYOND AESTHETICS
- PART II ART, HISTORY, AND NARRATIVE
- Art, Practice, and Narrative
- Identifying Art
- Historical Narratives and the Philosophy of Art
- On the Narrative Connection
- Interpretation, History, and Narrative
- PART III INTERPRETATION AND INTENTION
- PART IV ART, EMOTION, AND MORTALITY
- PART V ALTERNATIVE TOPICS
- Notes
- Index
Interpretation, History, and Narrative
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword by Peter Kivy
- Introduction
- PART I BEYOND AESTHETICS
- PART II ART, HISTORY, AND NARRATIVE
- Art, Practice, and Narrative
- Identifying Art
- Historical Narratives and the Philosophy of Art
- On the Narrative Connection
- Interpretation, History, and Narrative
- PART III INTERPRETATION AND INTENTION
- PART IV ART, EMOTION, AND MORTALITY
- PART V ALTERNATIVE TOPICS
- Notes
- Index
Summary
INTRODUCTION: HISTORICAL NARRATIVES AS FICTIONS AND AS METAPHORS
At present, one of the most recurrent views in the philosophy of history claims that historical writing is interpretive and that a primary form that this interpretation takes is narration. Furthermore, narration, according to this approach, is thought to possess an inevitably fictional element, namely, a plot, and, in this regard, the work of the narrative historian is said to be more like that of the imaginative writer than has been admitted. The upshot of this philosophically, moreover, is the assertion that historical narrations, qua narrative interpretations, are to be assessed, in large measure, in terms of the kind of criterion of truth that is appropriate to literary works. And a subsidiary, though far less tendentious, consequence is that our understanding of historical interpretation can profit from literary or “discourse” analysis.
This position, which was perhaps anticipated by Nietzsche, is suggested in varying degrees by Roland Barthes and Louis Mink; it has been developed most extensively by Hayden White; and it commands a following among historians, literary critics, and philosophers of history.
For White, historical writing is interpretive in several separable, though interrelated, registers. Historical argumentation in the dissertative mode involves a paradigm choice; second, in a broad sense, a historical tract requires the choice of an ideological perspective; and, also, a historical narrative itself enjoins a choice of a plot structure, which, in turn, is related to the discursive tropes that “figure” the writing of the text. For the purposes of this essay, it is White's conclusions about the specific status that he assigns to narrative interpretation that preoccupy us.
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- Beyond AestheticsPhilosophical Essays, pp. 133 - 156Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2001
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