A Comparative Study Between The Civilization Of The Renaissance In Italy And The Great Cat Massacre And Other Episodes In French Cultural History: The Differences And Similarities Of Classical Cultural History Versus Neo-cultural History

The cultural history is a branch of the development of western historical studies.As Peter Burke says in his classical work, What is Cultural History?， thedevelopmental and evolving process of the western cultural history has experiencedseveral important stages. Classical Stage began from the stage of Artistic SocialHistory in1930s. Then in1960s scholars found the stage of Public Cultural History.And finally it came the stage of Neo-Cultural History. Meanwhile, he points out thatthere is no distinctively landmark event to distinguish these stages. There must besome certain similarity or inheritance. It is for sure that some differences due to thediverse general background are apparent and comprehensible.As the beginning and ending of the western cultural history so far, the crucialstatus of Classical Cultural History and Neo-Cultural History does not need moreemphasis. One established the researching criterions, basic position and academicnorms of cultural history. The other expanded the researching methodologies andtheoretical bases and as well led the cultural historical studies to a more extensivefield. Yet, between these two, Neo-Cultural History, the very front edge of thehistorical procedure, is the most realistic and it draws more attentions for this.Therefore, a study of these two landmark stages, specially a comparative study, toseek for the features and containing thinking of the western cultural history during itsevolving process, has remarkable meanings. At the same time, such comparative studywill become a sturdy theoretical base for further explorations in this field.This thesis tries to do a comparative research on The Civilization of theRenaissance in Italy together with The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes inFrench Cultural History. It explores the differences and similarities of two significantperiods in the western cultural history to summarize the developmental features ofcultural history during two ages and to predict the tendency of the western culturalhistory in an expecting way. There are five sections in the thesis includingintroduction and conclusion.The introduction chapter includes four parts. Firstly, it states the researchingbackground. Furthermore, it verifies the reasons for the researching questions and theresearching perspectives. Then it makes a holistic and systematical review of theprevious studies and concludes the present situation of related studies. Finally, thesignificance, important and difficult parts and methodology are introduced.The initial chapter demonstrates why there is cultural history. It compares thewriting aims of the two masterpieces through the analysis on Jacob Burckhardt andRlbert Darnton and their writing background and intentions.The second chapter illustrates what is cultural history. It synthetically comparesand analyzes the ideas and thoughts of the two works, by means of comparing theirunderstanding of culture, their concepts of cultural history, their proposition andpresentation of fundamental arguments and their logical framework and focuses.The third chapter elaborates how to study cultural history. It systematicallyanalyzes the historical narrations and explanations of these two masterpieces, from thekey perspectives of different researching point of views, selections and applications ofthe historical materials, researching methodologies, and narrating styles and methods.Eventually, the conclusion chapter summarizes the distinctiveness of ClassicalCultural History and the novelty of Neo-Cultural History. Also, it tries to explore the developmental tendency of western cultural history.