WORD AND DEED: WHY A POST-POSTSTRUCTURAL HISTORY IS NEEDED, AND HOW IT MIGHT LOOK

Abstract

This essay reviews the contribution of Foucauldian poststructural theory to history. It retrieves its origins as a supplement to, not a negation of, the structuralisms of the Annales. Histories of discourses influenced by modish (Barthesian, gender, post-colonial, Cultural Studies …) paradigms often overlook this heritage. They take, ‘il n'y a pas hors de texte’ at face value. This essay suggests ways to re-assimilate historical studies of discourses with older historiographies of classes, institutions, social structures, and ideologies. Poststructural historiography today tends to focus only on discourses, confusing coherence with power, meanings with causes. Making use of Giddens's structuration, de Certeau's reçu and Bourdieu's pratique, I suggest that historians must seek out actions as well as words, looking for sites where discourses they find in one sphere affect another. Only then can historians assess the importance of the discourses they find, above and beyond their mere coherence.