Historical Entity And Historical Representation

Since the 1970s,the issue of historical entity and historical representation has become the focus of research in the field of Historical Philosophy and Historiography Theory.In fact,it is not accidental that this issue can be favored by historians during this period.With the 1960s or 1970s as a turning point,historians' understanding of History has undergone a process of change from more emphasis on the objective elements to more attention to literary and subjective elements.American historian Hayden White made an important contribution in this turning.With the aid of linguistic theory and literary theory,he constructs his own poetics theory in the field of history,which emphasizes the factors such as imagination,metaphor and fabrication in historiography.It is noteworthy that Hayden White's emphasis on imagination,metaphor and fabrication is not tantamount to denying the existence of historical entity.Therefore,the thesis has two main aims.The first is to explore White's view of historical entity.What dose White think of historical entity?How dose White deal with the problem of historical entity in his theory?Does White's approach to historical entity reflect some of the problem in his theory,and if so,what are the problems?The second is to rethink the influence and contribution of Hayden White's historical philosophy.White's historical philosophy has shaken the position of historical entity and objectivity,and can enable us to ponder the question of historical entity and objectivity better,for example,how historians view the historical entity and objectivity in the postmodern context?Where will the historical entity and objectivity go?The whole thesis can be divided into three parts.First,the introduction is briefly explains why the Hayden White's historical philosophy is chosen as the object of my study,and introduces the situation of relative research in academic circles at home and abroad.Next are three chapters.The first chapter mainly outlines the construction and adjustment of Hayden White's theory,emphasizing White's view of metaphor,tropic and ideology and so on.The second chapter is the focus of this thesis.Based on Hayden White's discussion on how to represent Nazi Holocaust,we put forward the problem that White's theory faced in the field of history research,that is,the relationship between historical entity and historical representation.The third chapter focuses on the rethink of the relationship between historical entity and historical representation in Hayden White's historical philosophy and the emphasis on White's academic contribution.All in all,based on the study of Hayden White's historical philosophy,we would like to illustrate that White has put forward some new questions in historical entity and historical representation,which stimulated our new understanding to historical entity and historical representation.Only then faces the questions raised by White,can historians have a deeper understanding of history in the new context.