Beverley Southgate – författare

An experienced author of history and theory presents this examination of the purpose of history at a time when recent debates have rendered the question ''what is history for?'' of utmost importance.Charting the development of historical studies and examining how history has been used, this study is exceptional in its focus on the future of the subject as well as its past. It is argued that history in the twenty-first century must adopt a radical and morally therapeutic role instead of studying for ''its own sake''.Providing examples of his vision of ''history in post-modernity'', Beverley Southgate focuses on the work of four major historians, including up-to-date publications:

This makes compulsive reading for all students of history, cultural studies and the general reader, as notions of historical truth and the reality of the past are questioned, and it becomes vital to rethink history''s function and renegotiate its uses for the postmodern age.

An experienced author of history and theory presents this examination of the purpose of history at a time when recent debates have rendered the question ''what is history for?'' of utmost importance.Charting the development of historical studies and examining how history has been used, this study is exceptional in its focus on the future of the subject as well as its past. It is argued that history in the twenty-first century must adopt a radical and morally therapeutic role instead of studying for ''its own sake''.Providing examples of his vision of ''history in post-modernity'', Beverley Southgate focuses on the work of four major historians, including up-to-date publications:

This makes compulsive reading for all students of history, cultural studies and the general reader, as notions of historical truth and the reality of the past are questioned, and it becomes vital to rethink history''s function and renegotiate its uses for the postmodern age.

Linking fiction with history and historical theory, ''A New Type of History'': Fictional Proposals for dealing with the Past focuses on a selection of nineteenth- and twentieth-century novelists – Tolstoy, Proust, John Cowper Powys, Virginia Woolf, Wyndham Lewis, Penelope Lively, and James Hamilton-Paterson – who have criticized scientifically based history and proposed alternative ways of approaching the past: more subjective and personal, colourful and imaginative, and above all ethically orientated. In this, it is argued, they have been reverting to an earlier rhetorical model for history, which is now being increasingly adopted by practising historians. This ‘new type of history’ may lack the claimed ‘objectivity’ and ‘truth’ of its immediate predecessor, but it opens the way for an ethically focused subject that may be used (in Nietzsche’s words) ‘for the purpose of life’.

Providing a new take on both novelists and historiography, and ranging widely from the nineteenth century to the present day, this cross-disciplinary study will be valuable reading for all those interested in the intersection and interplay between fiction and history.

Linking fiction with history and historical theory, ''A New Type of History'': Fictional Proposals for dealing with the Past focuses on a selection of nineteenth- and twentieth-century novelists – Tolstoy, Proust, John Cowper Powys, Virginia Woolf, Wyndham Lewis, Penelope Lively, and James Hamilton-Paterson – who have criticized scientifically based history and proposed alternative ways of approaching the past: more subjective and personal, colourful and imaginative, and above all ethically orientated. In this, it is argued, they have been reverting to an earlier rhetorical model for history, which is now being increasingly adopted by practising historians. This ‘new type of history’ may lack the claimed ‘objectivity’ and ‘truth’ of its immediate predecessor, but it opens the way for an ethically focused subject that may be used (in Nietzsche’s words) ‘for the purpose of life’.

Providing a new take on both novelists and historiography, and ranging widely from the nineteenth century to the present day, this cross-disciplinary study will be valuable reading for all those interested in the intersection and interplay between fiction and history.