Mots de L'histoireHistory in our day is still a story, and yet one from which we expect to tell the truth - not just the facts, the names and events of the past, but the invisible order and forces behind them. How can the language of history balance these seemingly contrary tasks - the narrative, the scientific, and the political? This is the question Jacques Ranciere explores in "The names of history", a meditation on the poetics of historical knowledge. In the works of writers from Jules Michelet to Fernand Braudel, Ranciere traces an ongoing revolution in historical study, a movement that challenged, in the practice of language, the opposition of science and literature. By way of a commentary on Erich Auerbach, he shows how fictional narrative intertwines with historical narrative to produce a "truth" that retains mythical elements. The poetics of knowledge Ranciere develops here is an attempt to identify the literary procedures by which historical discourse escapes literature and gives itself the status of a science. His book is also an appreciation of Braudel, whose work in the Annales school greatly advanced this project. Ranciere follows and extends Braudel's discursive production of new agencies of history, which accounts for both the material conditions in which history takes place and the language in which it is written. |
Contents
The Excess of Words | 24 |
The Founding Narrative | 42 |
The Place of Speech | 61 |
The Space of the Book | 76 |
Notes | 105 |
Common terms and phrases
ambassadors amphibology Annales body Braudel chronicling constituted Danaë dead king death define democratic and social E. P. Thompson effaced effect excess of speech excess of words expression Fernand Braudel figure François Furet French Revolution geographic gives heresy historian historical science historical study historiography history of mentalities homonymy Ibid identity illusion imitation invention Isaac Babel Jacques Rancière Jules Michelet language legitimacy literary literature living logic love letters Lucien Febvre Marxist masses meaning Mediterranean Micheletist mimesis mode Montaillou movement muthos narration narrative nonplace nontruth object paperwork past Percennius Philip phrase place of speech poetics of knowledge political poor possible present Rancière Rancière's reality regicidal relation revolutionary rigor royal royal-empiricist scene scholarly history scientific sense silent witness singular social science space speak speakers status story subject of history symbolic Tacitus tenses territory things tion tive tory tradition trans transform truth unity Victor Bérard voice writing