Postmodernism and History
The challenge poststructuralist and postmodern thought posed to historical realism, and the vigorous defense of evidence-based history that it provoked.
Definition
Postmodernism in history names a cluster of skeptical positions, influenced by poststructuralism, that question the possibility of objective historical knowledge, the stability of meaning in sources, and the legitimacy of overarching historical narratives.
Scope
This topic covers the postmodern challenge to history: the skepticism toward grand narratives, objective truth, and the referential transparency of language, drawn from thinkers such as Foucault, Derrida, and Lyotard. It includes the radical narrativist position of historians like Jenkins and the realist counterarguments of defenders such as Evans, surveying a debate that peaked in the 1990s.
Core questions
- Does the linguistic mediation of sources undermine the historian's access to past reality?
- Are 'grand narratives' of progress and emancipation defensible?
- Can history claim truth, or only competing interpretations?
- How have historians defended the discipline against radical skepticism?
Key theories
- Incredulity toward metanarratives
- Postmodern theory cast doubt on overarching stories of progress, reason, and emancipation, challenging the legitimating narratives that had underpinned much modern historiography.
- Realist defense of history
- Evans argued that, while historians must acknowledge perspective and the role of language, disciplined method and evidence still allow defensible, truth-seeking knowledge of the past.
History
Drawing on French poststructuralism, the postmodern challenge to history crystallized in the 1980s and reached its sharpest expression in the 1990s, prompting the so-called 'history wars' over objectivity and truth. Radical narrativists such as Jenkins were answered by realist defenders such as Evans, and the debate eventually settled into a more nuanced acknowledgment of both language and evidence.
Debates
- Relativism versus realism
- The core controversy pits the claim that history yields only perspectival interpretations against the position that method and evidence support genuine, if revisable, knowledge of the past.
Key figures
- Keith Jenkins
- Richard J. Evans
- Michel Foucault
- Jean-François Lyotard
- Frank Ankersmit
Related topics
Seminal works
- jenkins1991
- evans1997
- iggers2005
Frequently asked questions
- What was the 'postmodern challenge' to history?
- It was the set of poststructuralist-inspired arguments that questioned objective historical truth, the reliability of language as a window onto the past, and the legitimacy of grand historical narratives.
- How did historians respond?
- Defenders such as Richard Evans accepted that perspective and language matter but argued that rigorous method and evidence still make truth-seeking history possible and worthwhile.