tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post116258187498498594..comments2024-03-10T20:46:19.274-04:00Comments on In the Middle: Futures of the Field: More on Hedgehogs. Also, Foxes.Cord J. Whitakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06224143153295429986noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1162949337643064702006-11-07T20:28:00.000-05:002006-11-07T20:28:00.000-05:00It strikes me that much of the [very humane] impul...It strikes me that much of the [very humane] impulse behind Kellie Robertson's desire to "speak with the living" in her scholarship has much in sympathy with the work of the historians associated with the Annalistes movement in France in the 1920s onward [Marc Bloch, Fernand Braudel, Lucien Febvre, Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, etc.]. They believed that the concerns of the present should always set the agenda for the investigation of the past, and in the words of Fernand Braudel, they believed that “[e]ach ‘current event’ brings together movements of different origins, of a different rhythm – today’s time dates from yesterday, the day before yesterday, and all former times.” History, for them, was always, simultaneously,a history of the past *and* the present, and they aimed for "whole" histories that would take into account the longest possible durations of time, while they were also attentive to all the ways in which different sorts of temporalities operated within the "longue duree." They were excellent hedgehog-fox hybrids. I know, I know--I'm always trying to resuscitate an interest in these guys. I can't help it.<BR/><BR/>But on a more pointed note, when Kellie says that she believes the future of medieval studies has something to do with "helping the present (whether defined as the modern, the post-modern, or something else altogether) think through the myths of origins that it uses to define its own identity," I say, yes, that's good--medieval studies as a kind of important corrective to all the ways in which, say, scholars of early modernity and modernity define everything against or beside the wrong or grossly oversimplified Middle Ages, or as a tonic for all the ways in which the Middle Ages have served as a myth of nationalist origins or primeval chaos or comforting tradition or the plave where nothing interesting [like the individual or capitalism or liberalism] had yet happened, etc. But I would also like to think that an interesting and *interested* and *engaged* present-minded medieval studies could also go further than this--in other words, that it could go further than just engaging with models of modernist-inflected liberal humanist scholarship that "gets" the Middle Ages "wrong" and needs to be revised, although this is a critical first step, to be sure. As to what that "further" is, I think Bruce Holsinger's talk might provide some clues [?], and I'm looking forward to it!<BR/><BR/>Cheers, EileenEileen Joyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13756965845120441308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1162840834045336292006-11-06T14:20:00.000-05:002006-11-06T14:20:00.000-05:00Thanks, Liza. It was even better when delivered in...Thanks, Liza. It was even better when delivered in Kellie's inimitable style.<BR/><BR/>I'll start a link cluster on professionalization next time I update the righthand links.<BR/><BR/>I look forward to the day, Liza, when we get to invite you to speak in a Futures of the Field symposium on Early Modern Studies.Jeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1162800398655152102006-11-06T03:06:00.000-05:002006-11-06T03:06:00.000-05:00What a great paper! Thanks for sharing. JJC, perha...What a great paper! Thanks for sharing. JJC, perhaps this ought to be hyperlinked somehow to the "professionalization" entry: things to think about as a grad student: whether to professionalize, and whether to be a fox.<BR/><BR/>(and, happy birthday)<BR/><BR/>LizaAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com