Philosophy of History After Hayden White

Robert Doran is Associate Professor of French and Comparative Literature at the University of Rochester, USA. He is the author of The Theory of the Sublime from Longinus to Kant and the editor of The Fiction of Narrative: Essays on History, Literature, and Theory, 1957-2007, by Hayden White, and Mimesis and Theory, Essays on Literature and Criticism, 1953-2005, by René Girard.

Hayden White's diagnosis of history as constructed narrative has wreaked permanent damage to traditional conceptions of history, philosophy, and narrative alike; it is no longer the moment simply to assess that damage, but rather to respond to it with new proposals and new creativity, something this extraordinarily stimulating collection does in exemplary fashion. -- Fredric Jameson, William A. Lane, Jr. Professor, Duke University, USA Hayden White's contribution to history and other humanistic disciplines is inestimable. The essays in this book mark a great step forward not only in the growing body of commentary on White but in the creative uses and adaptations of his work. -- Dominick LaCapra, Bowmar Professor of Humanistic Studies, Cornell University, USA This book is about two related subjects: the enigmas, paradoxes, contingencies, and contradictions inherent in any and all attempts to understand, come to grips with, and free ourselves from history; and the intellectual itinerary of Hayden White. I suggest that readers begin with White's eloquent and brief closing "Comment" before moving on to the shrewd and erudite reflections that precede it. -- Allan Megill, Professor of History and Thomas C. Sorensen Professor of Political and Social Thought, University of Virginia, USA; author of Historical Knowledge, Historical Error.

• Editor's Note \ List of Contributors \ List of Illustrations \ Introduction: Choosing the Past: Hayden White and the Philosophy of History Robert Doran \ 1. History as Fulfillment Hayden White \ 2. A Cognitivist Approach to Tropology F. R. Ankersmit \ 3. Deliver Us from A-Historicism: Metahistory for Non-Historians Mieke Bal \ 4. Hayden White's Hope, or the Politics of Prefiguration Karyn Ball \ 5. Hayden White and Me: Two Systems of Philosophy of History Arthur C. Danto \ 6. Uneven Temporalities / Untimely Pasts: Hayden White and the Question of Temporal Form Harry Harootunian \ 7. Hopeful Monsters or, The Unfulfilled Figure in Hayden White's Conceptual System Hans Kellner \ 8. Rhetorical Theory / Theoretical Rhetoric: Some Ambiguities in the Reception of Hayden White's Work Gabrielle M. Spiegel \ 9. Hayden White and Non-non-Histories Richard T. Vann \ 10. From the Problem of Evil to Hermeneutic Philosophy of History: For Hayden White Gianni Vattimo \ 11. Comment Hayden White \ Notes \ Index