1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910809195803321

Autore

Clark Elizabeth A (Elizabeth Ann), <1938-2021.>

Titolo

History, theory, text [[electronic resource] ] : historians and the linguistic turn / / Elizabeth A. Clark

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge, Mass., : Harvard University Press, 2004

ISBN

0-674-02958-5

Descrizione fisica

x, 325 p

Disciplina

907/.2

Soggetti

Historiography

History - Philosophy

Christian literature, Early - History and criticism

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references p. ([193]-318) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Acknowledgments -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction: An Overview -- 1 Defending and Lamenting History -- 2 Anglo-American Philosophy and the Historians -- 3 Language and Structures -- 4 The Territory of the Historian -- 5 Narrative and History -- 6 The New Intellectual History -- 7 Texts and Contexts -- 8 History, Theory, and Premodern Texts -- Abbreviations and Frequently Cited Books -- Notes -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

In this work of sweeping erudition, one of our foremost historians of early Christianity considers a variety of theoretical critiques to examine the problems and opportunities posed by the ways in which history is written. Elizabeth Clark argues forcefully for a renewal of the study of premodern Western history through engagement with the kinds of critical methods that have transformed other humanities disciplines in recent decades. History, Theory, Text provides a user-friendly survey of crucial developments in nineteenth- and twentieth-century debates surrounding history, philosophy, and critical theory. Beginning with the "noble dream" of "history as it really was" in the works of Leopold von Ranke, Clark goes on to review Anglo-American philosophies of history, schools of twentieth-century historiography, structuralism, the debate over narrative history, the changing fate of the history of ideas, and the impact of interpretive anthropology and literary theory on current historical scholarship. In a concluding chapter she offers some



practical case studies to illustrate how attending to theoretical considerations can illuminate the study of premodernity. Written with energy and clarity, History, Theory, Text is a clarion call to historians for richer and more imaginative use of contemporary theory.