追寻中世纪“权力的历程”--托马斯·N.比森的权力史研究

In Search of the "Experience of Power" in the Middle Ages:Thomas N.Bisson and His Study of the History of Power

比森是当代研究中世纪权力史的大家。他不仅描述了中世纪权力的历程,而且建构了解释中世纪权力的模式。比森认为,中世纪欧洲权力存在的主要形式是领主权,而在实现权力政治化之前领主权的根本特征是非政府性。比森从政治制度史到权力史的研究转向,一方面是其学术创新的体现,另一方面则反映了20世纪后期美国中世纪史研究的新取向。

Thomas N. Bisson, as a master of the medieval history of power, not only describes the experience of power in the Middle Ages, but also builds up a framework to interpret such power. According to Bisson, power in medieval Europe mainly took the form of lordship. Before power was politicized, the basic feature of this form of power was its non-governmental nature. Bisson's shift from the history of a political system to the history of power was on the one hand an academic innovation and on the other a reflection of the new orientation of medieval studies in the US in the late twentieth century.