History, language, ideas and post‐modernism : A materialist view∗

Kirk, Neville

doi:10.1080/03071029408567905

Cited by 34 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…The rejection of this concept of a stable language system is linked to the collapse of the belief in language's ability to represent "external reality" in a reliable way. In fact, as Kirk (1994) argued, poststructuralists often deny the existence of a reality that is independent of people's personal and social lives, thought, and use of language (p. 226).…”

Section: Postmodernism and Deconstructionmentioning

confidence: 97%

The Textual Pendulum

Soffer

2005

Commun Theory

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A comparison of the dominating perceptions of the relationship between text and knowledge in the Middle Ages, the modern era, and the postmodern era reveals a fundamental shift of attitude. This article describes this shift metaphorically as a pendulum: from intra/intertextual study in the Middle Ages (when texts contained divine truth within themselves and in relation to other texts), to an extratextual methodology in the modern era (in which texts reflected objective reality), and back to postmodernist intra/intertextualism (in which texts do not reflect a doubtful objective reality but instead cloaked social constructions). The author posits that surprising similarities exist between the intra/intertextual cultures of the Middle Ages and the postmodern era and offers some explanations for these similarities.

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Section: Postmodernism and Deconstructionmentioning

confidence: 97%

The Textual Pendulum

Soffer

2005

Commun Theory

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“…Far from eschewing materialism, Lawrence argued that material changes "shape both the terms upon which subordinate groups are able to act politically, and many of the fundamental concerns of the politics they embrace". 56 Indeed, even defiantly Marxist historians like Neville Kirk, while rejecting the linguistic turners' claims to superiority, 57 have produced admirable studies of comparative labour movement politics by paying close attention to discourse. 58 In Australia, post-modern influences have taken root more slowly than in comparable countries such as Britain or the United States and the heated debates that characterised receptions of linguistically focussed work have been largely avoided.…”

Section: Australian Political History and The "Turn"mentioning

confidence: 99%

“Never Hitherto Seen Outside of a Zoo or a Menagerie”: The Language of Australian Politics

Dyrenfurth

2010

Aus J of Politics History

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Since the early 1980s, "linguistic" and "cultural" influences have shaped the study of history and the broader social sciences worldwide. In Australia these influences have developed more slowly than in comparable countries such as Great Britain or the United States. Yet the colourful language and "culture wars" of Australian politics have long been key ingredients of political history's appeal in and outside of the academy. Many practitioners perceive that the so-called "turns" constitute a threat to the study of political history. This article contends that, on the contrary, they have enlivened historiographical concerns.

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“…20 Language and systems of discourse invariably play active roles in the creation of aspects of social reality. Emphasis on the significance of language in the mobilization of subordinate groups does not entail commitment to poststructuralist theories that wrench political languages and concepts loose from their material and other influences, 21 a tendency evident in the writings of Gareth Stedman Jones and Patrick Joyce. 22 As Bryan Palmer argues, it is important to be attentive to the contextualized emergence of "new verbal frameworks" or "vocabularies" within which experience is expressed and communicated, to resist a descent into discourse while attending to language in ways that are instructive.…”

Section: Miguel Cabrera Arguesmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Syndicalism to Seattle: Class and the Politics of Identity

Burgmann

2005

Inter. Labor Working-Class Hist.

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In the first half of the twentieth century the labor movement promoted the notion of separate working-class values and interests—evident for example in American and European syndicalism, British interwar Communism and Australian interwar Laborism—and was thus identifiable as a social movement. Like the new social movements of the 1960s and 1970s, this prewar identity politics successfully mobilized imagined political communities. By contrast, the retreat from emphasis on class difference and the turn to “equality of opportunity” politics, which Raymond Williams identified at midcentury and warned against, demobilized and weakened the labor movement. With class-based inequalities increasing from the 1970s, the decline of working-class identity politics ensured that the discrepancy between the objective importance of class and its subjective significance became especially marked. However, a newly forged identity politics of the world's economically exploited has recently reemerged in the movement against corporate globalization. From syndicalism to Seattle, we have witnessed the rise, retreat and resurgence of class identity politics.

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History, language, ideas and post‐modernism : A materialist view∗

Cited by 34 publications

References 8 publications

The Textual Pendulum

The Textual Pendulum

“Never Hitherto Seen Outside of a Zoo or a Menagerie”: The Language of Australian Politics

From Syndicalism to Seattle: Class and the Politics of Identity

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