Narrativity in History: Post-Structuralism and Since

Kellner, Hans

doi:10.2307/2505042

Cited by 70 publications

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“…32. For surveys of discussions regarding the role of narrative in historical interpretation, see Kellner 1987;Ricoeur 1983Ricoeur -1985. In his early work, particularly Metahistory (1973), Hayden White had argued that meaning was produced in historical texts through a variety of means, including both emplotment and the application of ''tropes'' to the organization of information.…”

Section: The Novel As Literary Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Portable Monuments: Literature, Cultural Memory, and the Case of Jeanie Deans

Rigney¹

2004

Poetics Today

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This article seeks to contribute to contemporary discussions on the workings of cultural memory and examines in particular the way in which literary texts can function as a social framework for memory. Through a detailed study of the genesis, composition, and long-term reception of Walter Scott's The Heart of Midlothian (1982 [1818]), I argue that literary texts play a variety of roles in the formation of cultural memory and that these roles are linked to their status as public discourse, to their fictional and poetical qualities, and to their longevity. This analysis of the multiple roles of literary texts in what I call ''memorial dynamics'' sheds light on the complex communicative processes by which images of the past are formed and transformed over time. It indicates the need to consider discontinuity as a feature of memorial dynamics and to recognize, for better or for worse, that fictionality and poeticity are an integral and not merely ''inauthentic'' feature of cultural memory.

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Section: The Novel As Literary Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Portable Monuments: Literature, Cultural Memory, and the Case of Jeanie Deans

Rigney¹

2004

Poetics Today

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“…As I have described elsewhere, a full reckoning with the range of cultural and critical theory that has parsed the relationship between representation and reality necessitates a rejection of what Hans Kellner has described as the authoritarian discourse of reality. 4 The unavoidable corollary of recognising that the reality of intelligence is always, to an extent, culturally constructed, is a degree of critical introspection on behalf of intelligence scholars who still regard themselves as the arbiters of historical authenticity, standing as bulwarks against the tide of fantasists and conspiracy theorists who have deceived the wider public about the role and function of intelligence services. Such introspection is categorically not a descent into historical relativism, where the narratives of the most crazed internet blogger (or President of the United States) can stand on the same footing as an experienced scholar who has spent decades in the archive.…”

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The cultural turn in intelligence studies

Willmetts¹

2019

Intelligence and National Security

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This article explores an emerging "cultural turn" in intelligence studies, which, if fully realized, could entail the expansion of the discipline to include new methodologies and theories, and a more integrative understanding of historical causality that locates intelligence agencies within the widersocio-cultural domain they inhabit. It has two parts. The firstexpands upon what I mean by a new 'integrative' understanding of historical causality. The second explores three areas of interest for intelligence scholars where the "cultural turn" has clear and important implications: the study of secrecy, publicity, and "mentalities". In recent years a new wave of scholarship, focusing upon the representation of secret intelligence services in various media, has added new vitality to the discipline of intelligence studies. 1 It is tempting, therefore, to identify this topical interest in the popular mediation of intelligence agencies as the titular 'cultural turn' of this article, and leave it at that. But topicality alone cannot constitute a disciplinary 'turn'. At stake in this expansion of the discipline to include a consideration of 'culture' is something much more fundamental than simply a question of what topics are permissible. In this article I will argue that two conditions are necessary for a fully fledged cultural turn in intelligence studies: the first is an openness to new methodologies and theoretical paradigms, often borrowed from other disciplines, and in particular from the fields of cultural studies, literary theory and the philosophy of history. The second is a new understanding of historical causality that is integrative, recognising that intelligence, as with the rest of the political domain, 'does not constitute itself independent of and external to societybut is a place of almost continuous sociopolitical interaction.' Intelligence scholars, to borrow Steven Pincus and William Novak's wording, 'should not assume that their chosen area of inquiry can be studied abstracted from other elements of historical experience.' 2 Nor, it should be added, are many of those other elements of historical experience entirely abstracted from the history of secret intelligence. This article is therefore not intended as a comprehensive literature review of recent cultural studies of intelligence, though it does identify what this author considers some of the more significant works that assume one or both of the conditions described above. Nor is it a purely descriptive account of a 'cultural turn' in intelligence studies that has already occurred. Rather, it seeks to extrapolate from an emerging tendency within the field, a nascent cultural turn if you will, still in the making, in order to outline some guiding principles for its future development, as well as explore some of its implications for the study of intelligence. There are two sections to this article. The first expands upon what I mean by a new 'integrative' understanding of historical causality, and contrasts it with traditional historical approaches to...

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Westwell

2013

A Companion to the Historical Film

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Narrativity in History: Post-Structuralism and Since

Cited by 70 publications

References 1 publication

Portable Monuments: Literature, Cultural Memory, and the Case of Jeanie Deans

Portable Monuments: Literature, Cultural Memory, and the Case of Jeanie Deans

The cultural turn in intelligence studies

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