TROPICS OF DISCOURSE ESSAYS IN CULTURAL CRITICISM HAYDEN WHITE THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS BALTIMORE AND LONDON TROPICS OF DISCOURSE ESSAYS IN CULTURAL CRITICISM HAYDEN WHITE THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS BALTIMORE AND LONDON Copyright © 1978 by The Johns Hopkins University Press For my children All rights reserved. No pan of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any David, Adam, Juliana form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, xerography, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Manufactured in the United States of America The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland 21218 The Johns Hopkins Press Ltd., London Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 78-58297 V ISBN 0-8018-2127-4 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication data will be found on the last printed page of this book. Copyright © 1978 by The Johns Hopkins University Press For my children All rights reserved. No pan of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any David, Adam, Juliana form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, xerography, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Manufactured in the United States of America The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland 21218 The Johns Hopkins Press Ltd., London Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 78-58297 V ISBN 0-8018-2127-4 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication data will be found on the last printed page of this book. CONTENTS Acknowledgments ix Introduction: Tropology, Discourse, and the Modes of Human Consciousness 1 1 The Burden of History 27 2 Interpretation in History 51 3 The Historical Text as Literary Artifact 81 [ 4 Historicism, History, and the Figurative Imagination 101 ( 5 The Fictions of Factual Representation 121 6 The Irrational and the Problem of Historical Knowledge in the Enlightenment 135 7 The Forms of Wildness: Archaeology of an Idea 150 8 The Noble Savage Theme as Fetish 183 9 The Tropics of History: The Deep Structure of the New Science 197 10 What Is Living and What Is Dead in Croce's Criticism ofVico 218 11 Foucault Decoded: Notes from Underground 230 12 The Absurdist Moment in Contemporary Literary Theory 261 Index 283 vii CONTENTS Acknowledgments ix Introduction: Tropology, Discourse, and the Modes of Human Consciousness 1 1 The Burden of History 27 2 Interpretation in History 51 3 The Historical Text as Literary Artifact 81 [ 4 Historicism, History, and the Figurative Imagination 101 ( 5 The Fictions of Factual Representation 121 6 The Irrational and the Problem of Historical Knowledge in the Enlightenment 135 7 The Forms of Wildness: Archaeology of an Idea 150 8 The Noble Savage Theme as Fetish 183 9 The Tropics of History: The Deep Structure of the New Science 197 10 What Is Living and What Is Dead in Croce's Criticism ofVico 218 11 Foucault Decoded: Notes from Underground 230 12 The Absurdist Moment in Contemporary Literary Theory 261 Index 283 vii Acknowledgments The essays that comprise this volume originally appeared in the follow- ing places: "The Burden of History," History and Theory 5, no. 2 (1966). "Interpretation in History," New Literary History, 4 (1972-73). "The Historical Text as Literary Artifact," Clio 3, no. 3 (1974). "Historicism, History, and the Figurative Imagination," History and Theory, Beiheft 14, Essays on Historicism 14, no. 4 (1975). "The Fictions of Factual Representation," in The Literature of Fact, ed. Angus Fletcher (New York: Columbia University Press, 1976). "The Irrational and the Problem of Historical Knowledge in the En- lightenment," in Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture, vol. 2, Irrationalistn in the Eighteenth Century, ed. Harold E. Pagliaro (Cleve- land: Case Western Reserve University Press, 1972). "The Forms of Wildness: Archaeology of an Idea," in The Wild Man Within: An Image in Western Thought from the Renaissance to Romanticism, ed. Edward Dudley and Maximilian E. Novak (Pitts- burgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1972). "The Noble Savage Theme as Fetish," in First Images of America: The Impact of the New World on the Old, ed. Fredi Chiappelli (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1976). "The Tropics of History: The Deep Structure of the New Science," in Giambattista Vico's Science of Humanity, ed. Giorgio Tagliacozzo and Donald Phillip Verene (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976). "What Is Living and What Is Dead in Croce's Criticism of Vico," in IX Acknowledgments The essays that comprise this volume originally appeared in the follow- ing places: "The Burden of History," History and Theory 5, no. 2 (1966). "Interpretation in History," New Literary History, 4 (1972-73). "The Historical Text as Literary Artifact," Clio 3, no. 3 (1974). "Historicism, History, and the Figurative Imagination," History and Theory, Beiheft 14, Essays on Historicism 14, no. 4 (1975). "The Fictions of Factual Representation," in The Literature of Fact, ed. Angus Fletcher (New York: Columbia University Press, 1976). "The Irrational and the Problem of Historical Knowledge in the En- lightenment," in Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture, vol. 2, Irrationalistn in the Eighteenth Century, ed. Harold E. Pagliaro (Cleve- land: Case Western Reserve University Press, 1972). "The Forms of Wildness: Archaeology of an Idea," in The Wild Man Within: An Image in Western Thought from the Renaissance to Romanticism, ed. Edward Dudley and Maximilian E. Novak (Pitts- burgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1972). "The Noble Savage Theme as Fetish," in First Images of America: The Impact of the New World on the Old, ed. Fredi Chiappelli (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1976). "The Tropics of History: The Deep Structure of the New Science," in Giambattista Vico's Science of Humanity, ed. Giorgio Tagliacozzo and Donald Phillip Verene (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976). "What Is Living and What Is Dead in Croce's Criticism of Vico," in IX ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Giambattista Vico: An International Symposium, ed. Giorgio Taglia- cozzo and Hay den V. White (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Univer- sity Press, 1969). "Foucault Decoded: Notes from Underground," History and Theory 12, no. 1 (1973). "The Absurdist Moment in Contemporary Literary Theory," Contempo- rary Literature 7, no. 3 (1976). I am grateful to the publishers for permission to reprint these essays in this form. I would also like to take this occasion to acknowledge in print my TROPICS OF DISCOURSE obligation to friends and colleagues who have been responsible—whether they like it or not—for the course that my work has taken over the past decade: Loren Baritz, Lewis Beck, Marvin Becker, Norman O. Brown, Harry Harootunian, Jim Kaufmann, Sid Monas, Richard Lewontin, and Perez Zagorin, former colleagues at the University of Rochester; Stan Fish, Angus Fletcher, Lionel Gossman, Geoffrey Hartmann, Fred Jameson, and Edward Said, whose works have been constant challenges to me, and always instruc- tive; and finally, Richard Vann, Louis Mink, and George Nadel, editors of History and Theory, who goaded me, tolerantly but firmly, to pursue the kind of work that these essays represent. Their imaginativeness, wit, learn- ing, and editorial acumen are not matched, to my knowledge, in the field of scholarly publishing, except perhaps by Jack Goellner and The Johns Hopkins University Press, both in a class by themselves. Finally, the rhetoric of obligation is insufficient to express my gratitude to my wife and friend, Margaret Brose White. "Dio, quanto aventurosa fue la mia disianza!" ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Giambattista Vico: An International Symposium, ed. Giorgio Taglia- cozzo and Hay den V. White (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Univer- sity Press, 1969). "Foucault Decoded: Notes from Underground," History and Theory 12, no. 1 (1973). "The Absurdist Moment in Contemporary Literary Theory," Contempo- rary Literature 7, no. 3 (1976). I am grateful to the publishers for permission to reprint these essays in this form. I would also like to take this occasion to acknowledge in print my TROPICS OF DISCOURSE obligation to friends and colleagues who have been responsible—whether they like it or not—for the course that my work has taken over the past decade: Loren Baritz, Lewis Beck, Marvin Becker, Norman O. Brown, Harry Harootunian, Jim Kaufmann, Sid Monas, Richard Lewontin, and Perez Zagorin, former colleagues at the University of Rochester; Stan Fish, Angus Fletcher, Lionel Gossman, Geoffrey Hartmann, Fred Jameson, and Edward Said, whose works have been constant challenges to me, and always instruc- tive; and finally, Richard Vann, Louis Mink, and George Nadel, editors of History and Theory, who goaded me, tolerantly but firmly, to pursue the kind of work that these essays represent. Their imaginativeness, wit, learn- ing, and editorial acumen are not matched, to my knowledge, in the field of scholarly publishing, except perhaps by Jack Goellner and The Johns Hopkins University Press, both in a class by themselves. Finally, the rhetoric of obligation is insufficient to express my gratitude to my wife and friend, Margaret Brose White. "Dio, quanto aventurosa fue la mia disianza!"