Utopia, historiography, and the paradox of the ever-present Export

@article{citeulike:5538642, abstract = {After describing the current crisis in historiography and defining utopianism, I look at theories of history from a utopian perspective. I do so by examining three central concepts (historical rupture, historical erasure, and historical fictionality) by means of three utopian texts – Edward Bellamy's <i>Looking backward</i> (1888), Margaret Atwood's <i>The handmaid's tale</i> (1985), and Richard Gooch's <i>America and the Americans in 1833–4</i> (1834; 1995). I then move on to look at the practice of history in terms of these concepts with the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804–6 as my analytical and exemplary focus. I conclude by suggesting how utopianism offers for historiography a way out of the paradox of the ever-present.}, author = {Widdicombe, Toby}, citeulike-article-id = {5538642}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13642520903091050}, doi = {10.1080/13642520903091050}, journal = {Rethinking History: The Journal of Theory and Practice}, keywords = {got, history}, number = {3}, pages = {287--316}, posted-at = {2009-08-21 16:46:08}, priority = {2}, publisher = {Routledge}, title = {Utopia, historiography, and the paradox of the ever-present}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13642520903091050}, volume = {13}, year = {2009} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:5538642 L3 - citeulike-article-id:5538642 N2 - After describing the current crisis in historiography and defining utopianism, I look at theories of history from a utopian perspective. I do so by examining three central concepts (historical rupture, historical erasure, and historical fictionality) by means of three utopian texts – Edward Bellamy's <i>Looking backward</i> (1888), Margaret Atwood's <i>The handmaid's tale</i> (1985), and Richard Gooch's <i>America and the Americans in 1833–4</i> (1834; 1995). I then move on to look at the practice of history in terms of these concepts with the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804–6 as my analytical and exemplary focus. I conclude by suggesting how utopianism offers for historiography a way out of the paradox of the ever-present. IS - 3 JF - Rethinking History: The Journal of Theory and Practice EP - 316 TI - Utopia, historiography, and the paradox of the ever-present PB - Routledge VL - 13 SP - 287 KW - got KW - history AU - Widdicombe, Toby PY - 2009/// UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13642520903091050 ER -