Getting the punchline: deciphering anti-Jewish humour in Anglo-Norman England

The idea that laughter was impossible for medieval monks has been largely overturned in recent decades, but the paucity of sources and the cultural specificity of humour still makes understanding their sense of humour difficult. William of Malmesbury, a twelfth-century English Benedictine, nevertheless provides a rare glimpse of what made monks laugh in his collection of Marian miracles, the Miracula sanctae Mariae. Introducing one of his miracle stories as ‘a great joke that will have readers laughing out loud’, William gives us invaluable information about the way humour could infiltrate the most unlikely of genres, in this case one generally thought to be devotional and edificatory in nature. The story is also virulently anti-Jewish. By placing the joke in its historical context, exploring the themes of corruption, political weakness and interaction between Jews and Christians in twelfth-century England, we can understand what this joke meant and what it can in turn reveal about the world that produced it.     

中国史学的遗产、传统和当前发展趋势

我国是一个史学大国,我国史学的特点是:历史记载和历史撰述的连续性;传世的历史文献十分丰富;历史编纂形式的多样性;重视人事、重视经世致用的社会性。中国史学在长期的发展中,为我们留下了丰富的史学遗产,形成了一些优良传统。近年来我国史学有了很大的发展,但也存在一些问题。有造诣的史学工作者,应该关注史学发展趋势,关注有倾向性的史学现象,促进中国史学沿着正确的方向健康地发展,这是我们史学工作者的社会责任和历史使命。     

从宋代义理化史学到清代实证性史学的转变

在中国古代史学发展史上,如果从史学思想的角度考察问题,就会发现我国传统史学经历了从宋代义理化史学到清代实证性史学转变的过程。这两种史学思潮在史学本体论、史学认识论和史学方法论各方面都显示出截然不同的特征。揭示由宋代义理化史学到清代实证性史学转变的内涵及其意义,有助于阐明中国传统史学发展中某些内在规律。可以进一步深化史学史的研究。     

WONDER: FROM POETICS TO POLITICS

Marnie Hughes-Warrington's book, History as Wonder: Beginning with Historiography, invites readers to reconsider the power of wonder as a critical concept whose theoretical implications go far beyond its evident ability to inspire historical research. Wonder is supposedly a neutral weapon for historians, one that is limited to promoting incessant curiosity about the past. Attempting to move from a poetic and aesthetic vision of wonder to a consideration of the concept's ethical and political uses, Hughes-Warrington claims that “historians since Herodotus have engaged with or responded to the efforts of thinkers who attempt to make general sense of the world, metaphysicians” (xii). In what follows, I challenge Hughes-Warrington's approach by emphasizing and exploring the epistemological questions History as Wonder raises about who holds the power to establish a conventional sense of the world and to what extent historical research may offer general explanations of the world without succumbing to precritical assumptions or metahistorical reductionisms.     

King Stephen,the English church,and a female mystic: Christina of Markyate's Vita as a neglected source for the council of Winchester (August 1139) and its aftermath

One of the central reasons for the disintegration of royal authority (sometimes called ‘the Anarchy’) during the reign of King Stephen of England is generally thought to have been his troubled relationship with the English church. The king was summoned to appear before the legate in England, Henry of Blois, bishop of Winchester (who was also Stephen's brother), at a church council called for Winchester on 29 August 1139, in order to show cause for his conduct in arresting several prominent bishops and in confiscating their property. Several major chroniclers discuss the events leading up to and occurring at the council of Winchester, especially William of Malmesbury in his Historia novella and the anonymous Gesta Stephani. The versions of events contained in these sources are not entirely consistent. The present paper examines yet another recounting of the events of the council, seldom appreciated by historians of twelfth-century England, presented in the Vita of Christina of Markyate (c.1096/98–c.1155/66), composed by an anonymous monk of St Albans between 1140 and 1146. Christina was close to the abbot of St Albans, Geoffrey de Gorham, who was probably the patron of the Vita and who quite likely attended the Winchester council and apparently became involved in its aftermath. These events are recorded in some detail in the Vita, presenting us with a vivid recounting of the council and the immediate consequences thereof. The narrative of the Vita contains a somewhat different picture of the personalities and occurrences surrounding the Winchester council than we encounter in the chronicles. The current essay compares the Vita to the standard accounts. We argue that the Vita may be the earliest and possibly most reliable source for the events of the council. Moreover, if we privilege the report of the Vita, the council becomes an especially significant moment in the breakdown of relations between Stephen and the English church.     

King Stephen,the English church,and a female mystic: Christina of Markyate's Vita as a neglected source for the council of Winchester (August 1139) and its aftermath

One of the central reasons for the disintegration of royal authority (sometimes called ‘the Anarchy’) during the reign of King Stephen of England is generally thought to have been his troubled relationship with the English church. The king was summoned to appear before the legate in England, Henry of Blois, bishop of Winchester (who was also Stephen's brother), at a church council called for Winchester on 29 August 1139, in order to show cause for his conduct in arresting several prominent bishops and in confiscating their property. Several major chroniclers discuss the events leading up to and occurring at the council of Winchester, especially William of Malmesbury in his Historia novella and the anonymous Gesta Stephani. The versions of events contained in these sources are not entirely consistent. The present paper examines yet another recounting of the events of the council, seldom appreciated by historians of twelfth-century England, presented in the Vita of Christina of Markyate (c.1096/98–c.1155/66), composed by an anonymous monk of St Albans between 1140 and 1146. Christina was close to the abbot of St Albans, Geoffrey de Gorham, who was probably the patron of the Vita and who quite likely attended the Winchester council and apparently became involved in its aftermath. These events are recorded in some detail in the Vita, presenting us with a vivid recounting of the council and the immediate consequences thereof. The narrative of the Vita contains a somewhat different picture of the personalities and occurrences surrounding the Winchester council than we encounter in the chronicles. The current essay compares the Vita to the standard accounts. We argue that the Vita may be the earliest and possibly most reliable source for the events of the council. Moreover, if we privilege the report of the Vita, the council becomes an especially significant moment in the breakdown of relations between Stephen and the English church.     

民族文化认同与北朝史官制度的发展

鲜卑民族之于北朝史官制度的设立、推进和创造,对发挥史学的民族文化认同功能起了重大的作用。北魏在继承汉魏著作官制的同时,发展出完备严谨的国史编纂制度。北朝几代史家则提出了促进民族文化认同的史学思想。至北齐,史官制度与史家主体二者之间良好的互动催生了设馆修史这一新的机制,其对传统史学影响深远。这是北朝积极推进民族文化认同所结出的硕果,同时也有力地促进了当时和日后的民族文化认同。     

当代中国历史学的学术转型与创新 --试论旧课题的改造和新课题的建立

以往中国历史学轰轰烈烈的专题讨论,不仅凝聚了史学界的绝大部分精力,而且形成了一整套的中国化马克思主义历史理论或历史解释系统。它决定着中国史学的研究与编纂,塑造和影响着人们的思维方式。当前的史学学术转型无论如何不可能回避这些旧课题。从史学学科体系的角度看,改造旧课题,将其转换成为新课题,应该,而且可以成为史学学术转型的突破口。     

近50年来国内关于史学传统的研究

中国史学的优良传统是当代史学得以发展的重要思想资料之一。发掘和继承中国史学的优良传统,作为我们史学创新的起点,这是当前历史条件下史学发展的要求。近50年来国内关于史学传统的研究从整理史学遗产工作开始,对史学传统的研究逐渐从内容的总结上升到对民族精神、人文精神的挖掘,并就一些史学传统之间的联系和现实意义展开讨论,出现了活跃的局面。从中可以预见中国史学传统研究的趋势和前景,为新时期史学进行新创造提供借鉴。     

Experimental history: the appeal of postmodemism in historiography

Use, truth and time constitute the basic elements of the epistemological structure of history. That structure went through three stages: pre-modern (from ancient times to the late eighteenth century, before the professionalization of history took place), modern (the period of professional history, from the late eighteenth century to the 1970s), and post modern (post 1970s). In these three stages, use, truth, and time successively occupied the core of the epistemological structure of history. Postmodernist history, which puts time at the core of its epistemology, is an extreme form of historicism. Even more than historicism, it has emphasized the determining effect of time and change on historical truth and historical consciousness. The privatization of historical narrative and reading has prodded history to become experimental. Experimental history no longer proclaims the truth about the past. Instead, under specific historical circumstances, it strives to produce texts that will be recognized by individual historians and provides these texts to readers, who will make their own judgments. Whether these texts are true will be decided through the uses they produce. In this way, any historiographical practice will be an experiment conducted by an historian in the present and that will consist in searching for the truth about the past. The success of this experiment will depend entirely on the experimental environment, that is, on the conditions provided by the reading environment. __________ Translated from: Beijing Shifan Daxue Xuebao 北京师范大学学报 (Journal of Beijing Normal University), Vol. 5, 2004     

论民国时期中西史学交流的特点

民国时期的中国史学在欧风美雨的浸润下,艰难地然而终于剥离传统史学的脐带,迈向史学现代化的新途。在这一过程中,中西史学的交融呈现鲜明的特点：史学的传播渠道由欧美直接输入为主,以取代从日本的间接输入;中国学人留学欧美成为时尚,从欧美学成归国的留学生在中西史学的交流中发挥了不可或缺的作用,是传播西方史学的主体;而传播的内容以西方史学理论与方法为主,历史哲学的引入更令人瞩目;出版机构在民国时期中西交流中起到重大和显著的作用。     

HISTORY MAKING AND ETHICS—AN INTEGRAL RELATIONSHIP?

In this review essay, I examine the arguments made by Marnie Hughes-Warrington, with Anne Martin, in Big and Little Histories: Sizing Up Ethics in Historiography. While I find much to praise in this history, I also ask critical questions about the impact of non-Western ethics on historical writing, the role of ethics in historical writing generally, the need to further investigate the everyday lifeworlds of history makers in order to fully understand their ethical dispositions, and the relationship between the ethics of history making and engaged forms of historical writing. I conclude this review essay by offering some reflections on the interrelationship between history and memory and the ethics involved in both.     

Sappho’s “Brothers Poem”: An Interpretation

This article explores the overall meaning of Sappho's “Brothers' Poem” by elucidating its web of interwoven verbal repetitions. “The gods”, Sappho seems to say, “reward those who have moderate wishes, think in longer time frames by trying to exploit all their resources and understand the law of natural alternation, regulated by Zeus, by bringing about an even more spectacular reversal of fortune”.     

HISTORY OF HISTORIOGRAPHY FROM A SLIGHTLY COSMOPOLITAN POINT OF VIEW

Under review here are three works of different formats and scopes, each addressing questions of theory of history and the history of historiography. First, the mature work of Ignacio Olábarri Gortázar, published by the University Press of Salamanca, where he is now an emeritus professor, collects pieces written over a period of fifteen years that deal with matters related to his field of research in social labor history and other methodological and historiographical issues. Second, Fernando Sánchez Marcos seeks to offer an introductory book on the most noteworthy theoretical and historiographical issues of the twentieth century. Third, the volume from Jaume Aurell (Spain), Peter Burke (England), Catalina Balmaceda, and Felipe Soza (both from Chile) is a general handbook of historiography addressed primarily to students. All have their strengths and weaknesses. The most striking weakness is a persistent limitation of the field of vision, which is restricted to a European/Western (Francophone, Anglophone) cultural universe.     

Historiographical Foundations of Modern International Thought: Histories of the European States-System from Florence to Göttingen

Summary

The foundations of modern international thought were constructed out of diverse idioms and disciplines. In his impressive book, Foundations of Modern International Thought, David Armitage focuses on the normative idioms of natural law and political philosophy from the Anglophone world, from Hobbes and Locke to Burke and Bentham. I focus on parallel developments in the empirically-oriented disciplines of history and historiography to trace the emergence of histories of the states-system in the Italian- and German-speaking worlds, from Bruni and Sarpi to Pufendorf and Heeren. Taking seriously Armitage's remark that ‘the pivotal moments in the formation of modern international thought were often points of retrospective reconstruction’, I argue that the historical disciplines supplied another significant intellectual context in which the modern world could be imagined as ‘a world of states’.     

孔子的历史思想和史学意识

春秋之时,史学作为学科远未形诸事实,然孔子历史思想与史学意识则多有表现。孔子伦理观念中蕴含着对人类社会共同体的认识;其以天人、古今、有道无道、文质等相对概念分析概括历史的变化;认同礼乐制度的不断完善,视其为人文的核心;重视君主及其道德在历史上的作用;敬鬼神而远之,以考量历史及其过程的途径去体贴天命,透散出历史理性;以文化传承者自任,整理、保存并阐发典籍;总结历史,以为救弊方案,体现出明道经世的史学价值取向。     

20世纪中国史学界对历史规律问题的探讨

20世纪中国历史学界对历史规律性问题进行了长期反复的争论。人们对历史规律的研究主要有两种,一种是社会发展史意义的规律,一种是历史认识论意义的规律。长期以来,绝大多数人把五种生产方式的演进当作历史规律的主要形式。近年来一些学者反思过去研究中的简单化倾向．对历史规律的研究开始进入到历史认识论的层面,对规律的理解日益深入和具体。     

THE MISSING NARRATIVIST TURN IN THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF SCIENCE

The narrativist turn of the 1970s and 1980s transformed the discussion of general history. With the rejection of Rankean historical realism, the focus shifted to the historian as a narrator and on narratives as literary products. Oddly, the historiography of science took a turn in the opposite direction at the same time. The social turn in the historiography of science emphasized studying science as a material and practical activity with traceable and documentable traits. This empirization of the field has led to an understanding that history of science could be directly describable from scientific practice alone without acknowledging the role of the historian as a constructor of narratives about these practices. Contemporary historians of science tend to be critical of science's ability to describe its object—nature, as it is—but they often are not similarly skeptical of their own abilities to describe their object: past science, as it is. I will argue that historiography of science can only gain from a belated narrativist turn.     

历史学的传承与启新--冯尔康先生访谈录

冯尔康先生的治学,既承继了中国史学的优秀传统,又在新时期史坛中,大力推动并开展了社会史学的研究,为近20来中国史学界极富开创性的学者之一。他在清代政治史、社会经济史、史料学和中国古代社会结构史,尤其是社会史研究领域,均做出了较大的学术贡献。他在理论创新和具体研究中所形成的开拓性、包容性、前瞻性的治学特点,尤具学术魅力,启人新知。