English Language and Literature

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English Language and Literature

The works of Michael Foucault, Diana Taylor, and Carla Freccero’s thoughts on history share underlying similarities yet differ in their approaches to understand the past. The differences that are brought out by these historians are based on the traditional and contemporary definitions as well as the extent of study directed to history. Within these three arguments, there are correlations as well as deviations in ideologies and interpretations, generating contention and debate on the true meaning of history.

Foucault (2011) describes history as a field that is composed of both proper thoughts and historical thoughts that generate similar problems while focusing more on the documented information than on the real issues that took place at the historical time.

The arguments posed by Foulcault are based on formerly raised arguments that separated history into two forms, the proper history and the history of thought (Abercrombie, 1998). Foucault argues that the longstanding misconception has been on the separation of ideologies based on the documentations rather than focusing on the real issues that took place at that time.

The interpretation by Foucault (2011) is that history entails the documentations as well as the activities that took place in history. The interpretation is that being a representation of the past, history should encompass the events as well as the people who took part in documenting the activities.

Foucault (2011) therefore demonstrates that the interpretation of history should be a diverse and integrative issue rather than being a thing that separates the activities from the people who documented them. History should be interpreted in from of its elements and at no one time ...

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...l the entities rather than separating them as it has been commonly accepted. Taylor argues that history is part of the present and should therefore remain as such, while Carla states that history is identified based on the uniqueness of the past events. This means that despite the varying approaches used to define it, history remains the formal report of the past events.

Works Cited

Abercrombie, T. A. (1998). Pathways of memory and power: Ethnography and history among an andean people. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press

Foucault, M. (2011). The Archaeology of Knowledge. Retrieved http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/arch/section1.rhtml

Freccero, C. (2007). Queer Times. South Atlantic Quarterly Summer 106(3): 485-494.

Taylor, D. (n.d). Staging Social Memory: Yuyachkani. Retrieved from http://hemi.nyu.edu/cuaderno/yuyachkani/DTaylor_Yuyachkani.html

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