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The Universityof Chichester An accreditedinstitution of the University of Southampton Departmentof History The Journey from Languageto Experience: FrankAnkersmit's Lost "Historical" Cause. PeterP Icke Doctorof Philosophy February2010 WS 22813128 tue IIIIIIIIIIII 9IýK University of Chichester An accreditedinstitution of the University of Southampton Abstract Departmentof History Doctor of Philosophy The Journey from Language to Experience: FrankAnkersmit's Lost "Historical" Cause. PeterPhilip Icke This thesishas beencompleted as a requirementfor a higherdegree of the University of Southampton. My purpose in the researchingand the writing of this thesis has beento investigate, and to try to explain, Frank Ankersmifs curious shift from his well expressedand firmly held narrativist position of Narrative Logic, to an arguablycontradictory, yet passionatelyheld counter belief in the plausibility of a form of direct (sublime) historical experience- an authentic unmediatedrelationship with the past. I am, accordingly, presenting here what I believe to be the most adequateexplanatory account of/for Ankersmit's intellectual journey. A journey which, in essence, constituted a substitution of his earlier representational,language centred philosophy of history for what might be taken as a new and mystical non-representationaltheory. This alternativetheory of Ankersmit's (let it be called this for now), lacking cognitive foundations,works on the basis of sensations,moods, feelings and thereforea consciousnessdeemed to be receiveddirectly from the past itself, and therein - for in this thesis - lies its fatal weaknessas a historical theory. Belief the mystical may be all right at some level, if this is what is wanted, but a mystical experienceitself cannot produce a historical re-presentationwhich (tautologically) is the only way that the past can be presentedhistorically. Thus, I arguethat Ankersmit's journey from language (historical) being to experience- the latter phenomenon more appropriately situated within the field of sociology/socialtheory and memory studies - is, in the end, a lost historical cause. Contents Introduction ............................................................................................I Chapter One: The Good Ankersmit 10 .......:............................................. Pillar 1 .................................................................................................12 Pillar 2 .................................................................................................19 Pillar 3 .................................................................................................31 The Reviews 37 ........................................................................................ Misrepresentation 40 ......................................................................... Misunderstandings 41 ....................................................................... InadvertentAccord 42 ...................................................................... Chapter Two: A Moment Hesitation 48 of ............................................... SectionOne: Introductory Comments 49 ................................................ SectionTwo: The Illusion Truth 51 of .................................................... SectionThree: A FurtherQuestion Misrepresentation 65 of .................. SectionFour: Historiography Art Gardening 72 andthe of .................... SectionFive: Fact Value 78 and .............................................................. Chapter Three: Ankersmit in Transition 86 ............................................. SectionOne: Ankersmit Metahistory 92 on ............................................ SectionTwo: LanguageRevisited 96 ...................................................... SectionThree: Ambivalence: An Unlikely Story 99 .............................. SectionFour: The Caseof the Vanishing Tropes 111 .............................. SectionFive: Consolidation 122 ................................................................ SectionSix: An Explanation 135 ............................................................... Chapter Four: Sublime Historical Experience 140 .................................... SectionOne: Cultural Trauma Historian 151 andthe ............................... SectionTwo: Obsession Theory?............................ 164 or ........................ SectionThree: Presence: A New Paradigm 173 ....................................... SectionFour: A MisleadingTitle 179 ....................................................... Conclusion 204 ............................................................................................... Coda 209 ..................................................................................................... Bibliography 214 .......................................................................................... DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP I, PeterP. Icke, declarethat thethesis entitled `The Journey from Language to Experience:Frank Ankersmit's Lost "Historical" Cause'and thework presentedin it are my own. I confirm that: " this work wasdone wholly or mainly while in candidaturefor a researchdegree at this University. " whereany part of this thesishas previously been submitted for a degreeor any other qualificationat this Universityor any other institution,this hasbeen clearly stated; " whereI haveconsulted the published work of others,this is always clearlyattributed; . " whereI havequoted from thework of others,the source is always given. With the exceptionof suchquotations, this thesisis entirely my own work; "I haveacknowledged all main sourcesof help; " wherethe thesisis basedon work doneby myselfjointly with others, I have I havemade clear exactly what wasdone by othersand what contributedmyself; " noneof this work has beenpublished before submission Signed ý/ Date:5h Febrawy 2010. Acknowledgments First I thankmy supervisor,Keith Jenkins,for his continuousencouragement and supportthroughout this project.And, especially,for his carefulevaluation of my argumentsand his enthusiasmfor them. I alsowant to extendmy thanksto SueMorgan who, in her role asresearch co- ordinator,facilitated my progressionto anearly PhD completion. Hayden White, Beverley Southgateand Alexander Macfie read parts and/or the whole of my thesisin its various "stagesof production", and I thank them for their critical but always constructive commentson and their support for the project; Mark Mason actedthroughout as a brilliant soundingboard for ideas, not only relating to this thesis but with regard to historical theory more generally; in similar vein, thanks as well to Kalle Pililainen. And finally my thanks to my wife Christina for her tirelessproof readingof so many endlesslyreworded arguments,her advice on writing style and her insistenceon sentencelength reduction. F. R. (Frank) Ankersmit was not a total strangerto me when I first came to his works on historical theory, for his reputation precededhim. As a pre-eminent history- philosopher/theorist' of the EuropeanHayden White one might say- he had already, for me, assumeda significant statusamongst the leadersin his field of scholarship, and it was that image which influenced my perception of the Ankersmit who I initially began to read, analyse and situate. But, through that reading, analysing and situating, it was precisely that Ankersmit who slowly beganto melt away and mutate as another, quite different Ankersmit emergedout of what became him do fully my radical re-thinking of - an Ankersmit whose work(s) not live up either to his pre-eminent reputation or to expectationssubsequent to it. This re- thinking (refiguring(relocating) of Ankersmit, which constitutesthe substanceof my thesis,'is broadly reflected in its title, `The Journeyfrom Language to Experience: Frank Ankersmit's Lost "Historical" Cause', and it is from this governing perspectivethat I have constructed and produced the overall form and contentof my argument. And so that the readermight know, right from the start, the direction and purpose of this argument,I will first briefly summarise it as a whole and then discussits organisationinto chapters. I openmy argumentwith the propositionthat thereis in Ankersmit'swork(s), vis-ä- vis the philosophyof history,a very good (evenexcellent) Frank Ankersmit of an enduringkind. This good/excellent/enduringAnkersmit is the Ankersmitof 1Because Ankersmit in variousplaces is both referred to as, andsometimes refers to himself as, both a philosopherof history-anda historical theorist (suchusage effecting the collapseof any distinction that might exist betweenthe termsphilosopher andtheorist in this particular context), it should be notedhere that throughoutmy own text I havealso followed this samecommon usage, using the two termseither interchangeablyor preferring one over the other dependingon, what is perceivedas, again, `the context'. Furthermore,I shouldpoint out at this juncture that, with regardto notations,I will be using single inverted commasthroughout for footnoted quotations,for phrasesdrawn for discussionfrom previous "block" extractswithin my own text, and for my own rhetoricalquestions. My useof double inverted commaswill be restrictedto either the problematizingor highlighting of word/phrasemeanings. 1 Narrative Logic2 published in 1983.Yet, although the central thesis of that text - concerning the representational/propositionalnotion of the narrative substance- can, in my view, withstand all the criticisms that have been, and might be, levelled against