表象与本体——安克斯密特的历史表现理论

安克斯密特的历史表现理论与叙事实体理论一脉相承,都是历史学家构建的某种叙事性解释。历史表现理论认为,历史文本是对过去实在的一种模仿,是人们认识过去的一个途径。但在认识过去的过程中,由于手段逐渐成为目的,历史表象与历史本体的边界便模糊了。为了避免历史本体的消解,历史表现理论要求历史表现既要与历史本体相似,又要与之保持距离,这就使之陷入两难境地。安克斯密特认为,历史表现继承了叙事实体的整体性和实体性,是客观世界的真实存在,他强调表现与被表现者在本体论上的地位是相等的,甚至本体的存在和对于本体的认识均有赖于其表象。这超出了人们惯常接受的认识论范围,使历史研究者不必再为恢复历史的原有面貌而煞费苦心。     

The Logic of Action: Indeterminacy, Emotion, and Historical Narrative

Modern social theory, by and large, has aimed at reducing the complexity of action situations to a set of manageable abstractions. But these abstractions, whether functionalist or linguistic, fail to grasp the indeterminacy of action situations. Action proceeds by discovery and combination. The logic of action is serendipitous and combinative. From these characteristics, a number of consequences flow: The whole field of our intentions is engaged in each action situation, and cannot really be understood apart from the situation itself. In action situations we remain aware of the problems of categorization, including the dangers of infinite regress and the difficulties of specifying borders and ranges of categories. In action situations, attention is in permanent danger of being overwhelmed. We must deal with many features of action situations outside of attention; in doing so, we must entertain simultaneously numerous possibilities of action. Emotional expression is a way of talking about the kinds of possibilities we entertain. Expression and action have a rebound effect on attention. “Effort” is required to find appropriate expressions and actions, and rebound effects play a role in such effort, making it either easier or more difficult. Recent theoretical trends have failed to capture these irreducible characteristics of action situations, and have slipped into a number of errors. Language is not rich in meanings or multivocal, except as put to use in action situations. The role of “convention” in action situations is problematic, and therefore one ought not to talk of “culture.” Contrary to the assertions of certain theorists, actors do not follow strategies, except when they decide to do so. Actors do not “communicate,” in the sense of exchanging information, except in specially arranged situations. More frequently, they intervene in the effortful management of attention of their interlocutors. Dialogue, that is, very commonly becomes a form of cooperative emotional effort. From these considerations, it follows that the proper method for gaining social knowledge is to examine the history of action and of emotional effort, and to report findings in the form of narrative.     

The Politics of Employee Discharge: Triggering, Representation, and Venue

This article analyzes the failed effort to reform employment termination policy in the United States during the 1980s and early 1990s using the procedures of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. This effort sought to replace the common law doctrine of employment-at-will with state "just cause" arbitration statutes that would grant limited rights to discharged employees while capping the remedies available to prevailing claimants. The resulting Model Employment Termination Act and the failure of states to adopt it are explained by structural and strategic factors, including movement of the judicial "trigger," the configuration and representation of interests, and the choice of policy venue.     

Reproduction, Representation and Authenticity: A Rereading

This essay argues for the moral necessity of retaining connections between the practices of representation and the ideal of authenticity. Using the example of racial representation, the author finds in the political philosophy of Charles Taylor and the cultural criticism of George Steiner resources for engaging in a creative dialogue with the history of our own tradition.     

The Structure,Genre, and Meaning of Psalm 129

Psalm 129 depicts the distress of the people in exile. The common understanding is that vv. 6-8 is a lament for the downfall of its present adversaries. This article proves that this is not the meaning of the second half of the Psalm. It contains no appeal to God for salvation or thanksgiving for an ameliorated situation. Verses 6-8 depict the transience of the peoples exilic existence. The psalmist likens the people to the roof-top grass that withers rapidly. The rooftop grass evokes the poverty and the landlessness of the people that compel them to utilize their rooftops to grow crops that yield so little that there is almost nothing to harvest. This situation stands in contrast to the divine blessing of the agriculture in the Land of Israel. The psalmist’s objective is to convey the harsh reality of the exile. He juxtaposes this situation against the much awaited future and against the abundant Divine blessing of the past.     

Conflict,Order, Harmony: The Modern Meaning of the Confucian Tradition

An examination of how a focus on the reading of traditional Confucian texts as a spiritual exercise can enable us to deal productively with modern understandings of the divergences among different ideals of human excellence.An investigation of such ideals has often focused on virtue discourse,but that discourse generates understandable suspicions in many people.A productive approach to these suspicions is to examine both the idea that new virtues (such as spiritual regret) are needed,and the notion that three distinctive modern emphases must play a central role in any contemporary consideration of the relationships among diverse ideals.After considering two kinds of principled opposition to this approach,we turn to Walter Benjamin's exemplary account of the huge gulf between modern and traditional understandings,and the possible aid some texts may offer in bridging it.Focusing on the distinctive operation of specific forms of presentation in the Confucian tradition,we conclude by investigating the idea that reading Confucian texts can be seen even today as an illuminating kind of spiritual exercise.     

The Political Mistress: Intimacy,Emotion, and Parliamentary Politics in the Late 18th Century

Between c.1796 and 1809, Lady Harriet Ponsonby, Countess Bessborough and Lord Granville Leveson Gower were embroiled in a passionate affair. Their liaison created tensions in aristocratic society because they belonged to rival political parties, the Whigs and the Tories respectively. In the early years of their relationship, Leveson Gower was emerging on the political scene, while the countess was already well-versed in the complexities of party politics. Leveson Gower thus solicited her advice and support and Bessborough duly shared her knowledge and insight into the political world, which created an unusual dynamic that scholars have yet to explore. This article examines several letters that Bessborough wrote to Leveson Gower to analyse how she supported her lover's fledgling parliamentary career and how she navigated their political differences. I argue that Bessborough adapted a rhetoric of affection, deference, duty, and loyalty, that was typically used by aristocratic wives, to justify her interest in her lover's career and her passion for parliamentary politics. This article contributes to scholarship that explores aristocratic women's political participation by examining the strategies a political mistress could employ to exert influence over men. It also illustrates the value of using methodologies from the history of emotions to investigate the drives and passions that shaped interactions in the late 18th-century political sphere.     

White Parliament,Black Politics: The Dilemmas of Indigenous Parliamentary Representation

Australia's parliaments remain fundamentally white institutions. Since Federation, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been poorly represented – or not represented at all – in the nation's State, Territory and Commonwealth legislatures. Today there remains an ambivalent assessment of the capacity for parliamentary representation to actually deliver meaningful change for Indigenous peoples. This article examines the complexities involved in Indigenous parliamentary representation, drawing on original interviews with current and past parliamentarians to examine tensions between party identification and indigeneity; between electoral and group-based representation; and between notions of a politics of presence versus the effective representation of a diversity of Indigenous interests. The paper concludes that while parliamentary representation is important in a symbolic sense, without structural transformation it will never be an adequate vehicle for representing Indigenous needs and concerns in the postcolonial state.