History/Writing
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Cook, Albert Spaulding, PUBLISHER: Cambridge University Press, History ong>writingong> is a form of literature that claims a unique correspondence to ong>theong> processes of ong>theong> real world. In this ambitious study, Albert Cook examines ong>theong> literary d imensions of historiacal ong>writingong>. He examines two seemingly contradictory constraints on historiography: ong>theong> truth-claims of texts ong>anong>d ong>theong> rhetoric of historical discourse. He shows how ong>theong>se constraints combine to enable, raong>theong>r thong>anong> prevent, ong>theong> presentation of meong>anong>ing in temporal sequences of events. Cook's scope encompasses ong>theong> historigraphical aspects of ong>theong> Hebrew Bible ong>anong>d ong>theong> Gospels, Homer, Thucydides, Tacitus, Gregory of Tours, Einhards, ong>theong> ong>Anong>glo-Saxon chronicles, Machiavelli Guicciardini, Gibbon, Ezra Pound, Foucault, Heidegger ong>anong>d Bradel. In ong>theong> first half of his work he focuses on ong>theong> practice of individual historiong>anong>s; in ong>theong> second on particular philosophical or orgong>anong>izational techniques, in scriptural historiong>anong>s philosophical historiong>anong>s, or ong>theong> self-critical historiong>anong>s of our own time. Though his concerns are systematic his ong>anong>alysis bears upon development questions in ong>theong> practice of historiography over ong>theong> past twenty-five hundred years. Thus, ong>theong> book is not a history of historiography but a historicized perspective of its mong>anong>ifestations in different cultures. Its ambitious scope extends to questions of literary ong>theong>ory ong>anong>d criticism, literary history, rhetoric, semiology ong>anong>d narratology.