Uncertain Territories: A Defense Of The Situated Objectivity Of Historical Knowledge

Abstract

A common critique of Hayden White’s narrativist approach to historical knowledge is that it undermines the epistemic claims of the discipline. In response, some scholars have sought to distance themselves from this supposed literary bias to safeguard historical knowledge from the “dangers” of relativism or skepticism. However, considering Scott’s contributions, which enable us to understand experience in its linguistic, historical, and political dimensions; Kellner’s insights into narrativism, which reflct on the rhetorical dimension and the productive na- ture of language; and Haraway’s concept of situated and embodied objectivity in opposition to forms of totalization or relativism, we can argue that such an “epistemological rescue” is unnecessary. Therefore, this work proposes viewing the narrativist turn as an invitation to take responsibility for the histories we tell and to recognize the simultaneously objective and disputable nature of historical knowledge.