Use, Value, Justification: On History and Historicism in Nineteenth-Century French Studies

Abstract

The ‘historical turn' has been particularly fruitful and enabling in nineteenth-century French studies, and methodological approaches that might broadly be described as ‘historicist’ remain dominant within the subfield. Yet these approaches inevitably privilege certain types of literary critical thinking over others, and may even obscure some of the ways in which literary texts have, or can be given, meaning. They also tend to posit the audience of work in nineteenth-century French studies as being composed primarily of other specialists. I suggest that ‘taking a break’ from historicism might facilitate new conversations about nineteenth-century French literature, with new interlocutors.