'New Historicism' and Rudolf Ankersmit's postmodernist historical concept

Yu.A. Martynova*, D.E. Martynov**

Kazan Federal University, Kazan, 420008 Russia

E-mail: *juliemartynova82@gmail.com, **dmitrymartynov80@mail.ru

Received March 15, 2021

 

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Full text PDF

DOI: 10.26907/2541-7738.2021.3.21-30

For citation: Martynova Yu.A., Martynov D.E. “New Historicism” and Rudolf Ankersmit’s postmodernist historical concept. Uchenye Zapiski Kazanskogo Universiteta. Seriya Gumanitarnye Nauki, 2021, vol. 163, no. 3, pp. 21–30. doi: 10.26907/2541-7738.2021.3.21-30. (In Russian)

Abstract

This paper reflects on the modern historiographical situation of perceiving comprehensive historical theories as an obstacle to highly specialized research. On the philosophical level, priority has been given to structuralism and language philosophy, thereby resulting in almost unlimited supremacy of the hermeneutic approach in culture, i.e., in the prevalence of textocentrism. The Dutch philosopher Rudolf Frank Ankersmit argues that postmodernism is both a theory of history and a “theory for history.” According to him, historicism is a theory of “historical forms”. Thus, the morphology of culture is directly related to historicism. The transformation of historical forms occurs in conditions when the distinction between the text and reality (represented in the text) is erased, and the reality becomes “superfluous” in the context of the overproduction of meanings and interpretations. Therefore, representation ousts the reality. The New Historicism movement emerged in the United States during the second half of the 1980s as a response of literary criticism to the “challenges” of cultural materialism, feminism, or social history. The historical context is considered by the representatives of the New Historiography project as a system of culture, i.e., social institutions and practices (including political ones) are interpreted as functions of this system, and not vice versa.

Keywords: historicism, “New Historicism”, postmodernism, historical criticism, metanarrative, R. Ankersmit, S. Greenblatt, G. Veeser

References

  1. Kalimonov I.K. Osnovy nauchnykh issledovanii (zarubezhnaya istoriya) [Basics of Scientific Research (Foreign History)]. Kazan, Kazan. Gos. Univ., 2006. 276 p. (In Russian)
  2. West D. Kontinental’naya filosofiya. Vvedenie [Continental Philosophy. An Introduction]. Moscow, Izd. Dom “Delo” RANKhiGS, 2015. 448 p. (In Russian)
  3. Rutkevich A.M. Historicism and its critics. Voprosy Filosofii, 2018, no. 12, pp. 24–36. doi: 10.31857/S004287440002580-3.
  4. Ricoeur P. Konflikt interpretatsii: Ocherki o germenevtike [The Conflict of Interpretations: Essays in Hermeneutics]. Moscow, Akad. Proekt, 2008. 695 p. (In Russian)
  5. Mandelbaum M. History, Man, and Reason: A Study in Nineteenth-Century Thought. Baltimore, London, Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1971. 553 p.
  6. Vainshtein O.L. Leopold von Ranke and modern bourgeois historiography. In: Kritika noveishei burzhuaznoi istoriografii [Criticism of Modern Bourgeois Historiography]. Leningrad, Izd. Akad. Nauk SSSR, 1961, pp. 113‒149. Trudy Leningradskogo Otdeleniya Instituta Istorii, no. 3. (In Russian)
  7. Jameson F. Postmodernism, or, the cultural logic of late capitalism. New Left Review, 1984, no. 146, pp. 59–92.
  8. The New Historicism. Aram Veeser H. (Ed.). London, Routledge, 2016. 336 p.
  9. Hamilton P. Historicism. London, New York, Routledge, 2003. 211 p.
  10. The Limits of Literary Historicism. Dunn A., Haddox T.F. (Eds.). Knoxville, The Univ. of Tenn. Press, 2011. XXV, 180 p.
  11. Anisimova A.E. “Novyi istorizm”: Naukovedcheskii analiz [“New Historicism”: Analysis in a Research-on-Research Perspective]. Moscow, INION Ross. Akad. Nauk, 2010. 154 p. (In Russian)
  12. Khlebnikov G.V. Book review: 2010.03.020. Anisimova A.E. “New Historicism”. Analysis in a Research-on-Research Perspective. RAN INION, Tsentr Nauchn.-Inform. Issled. Nauke, Obraz. Tekhnol. Ed. by Rakitov A.I. Moscow, 2010. 154 p. Sotsial’nye i Gumanitarnye Nauki. Otechestvennaya i Zarubezhnaya Literatura. Seriya 3: Filosofiya, 2010, no. 3, pp. 133–141. (In Russian)
  13. Schmidt S.O. “Fenomen Fomenko” v kontekste izucheniya sovremennogo obshchestvennogo   istoricheskogo soznaniya [“The Phenomenon of Fomenko” in the Context of the Study of Modern Public Historical Consciousness]. Moscow, Nauka, 2005. 73 p. (In Russian)

 

The content is available under the license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.