语言·故事·解释——海登·怀特的历史叙事学

海登·怀特认为,历史叙事离不开语言,而语言的特质决定历史叙事必然具有修辞色彩。史学家将零散琐碎的单组历史事件转化为一个具有内在逻辑的蕴涵开头、中间、结尾的完整故事这一过程,势必伴随情节化解释、形式论证式解释、意识形态蕴涵解释,这个过程无法绝对摆脱史家个人的主观好恶和情感偏好,从本质上来讲是一种诗性构筑。 

Language,Story, and Explanation: Hayden White's Theory of Historical Narration

In Hayden White＇s opinion, there is an important relationship between historical narration and language. The nature of language determines that the history narratives have rhetorical characteristics. When historians change single group of historical events into a complete story which contains beginning, middle and end, there must have emplotment, formal argument and ideological implication in the story. The process contains the historians＇ subjective likes and dislikes and emotional preference, therefore, the historiography is a kind of poetic constructing process.