Reading the Past: Literature and History. (Book Review)

Beginning of article

Tamsin Spargo, ed. Reading the Past: Literature and History. New York: Palgrave, 2000. xii + 200 pp. $65.00 cloth; $19.95 paper.

Reading the Past, capably edited by Tamsin Spargo, appears in Palgrave's handsome and handy new series of Readers in Cultural Criticism. The volume brings together twelve essays (some well known, others less so) as a sample overview of the work being done over the past few decades in historical and cultural studies, reflecting the "linguistic turn" that took place in these disciplines, and in literary studies, signaling the return to history. It offers precursors (Walter Benjamin) as well as new work published barely two years ago (Catherine Belsey) and one apparently new essay (Jurgen Pieters). But the wide array of topics and approaches does not hide the fact that the collection has a quite distinct agenda. As opposed to the "cultural turn" in history and literary studies, which more broadly refers to focal changes in the choice of subjects (away from kings and queens and great events, towards the history of women, lower classes, or culture from the bottom up), the "linguistic turn" is primarily concerned w ith the textuality of the past. The two evidently overlap, and, admittedly, many of the same authors included here Would also feature in a …