历史事实与历史解释——20世纪西方史学理论视野下的考察

Historical Facts and Historical Interpretation:A Survey in Light of 20th Century Western Historical Theories

20世纪西方史学理论中关于历史学性质、历史学家工作与过往历史实在之间关系的看法,可以区分为重构论、建构论与解构论三种观点。在重构论看来,历史学家的历史是尽可能逼近历史实在;在建构论看来,历史学家的历史是以特定历史学家的特定视角呈现史家对历史某个面相的理解;解构论则认定,人们无从突破史料的限制或者说是文本性的限制而触及到过去本身。由此出发,它们在历史事实与历史解释关系上也持有不同的论点。重构论认为,历史事实自身就会呈现出意义,从而支配着历史解释。在建构论看来,史家对于历史事实的建构当中就包含了解释的因素,事实与解释并非截然分离。后现代主义史学理论在这一问题上所持立场也即解构论的主要特征,是历史的文本化、解释对于事实的支配地位以及历史解释的多元论立场。

The nature of history and the relationship between historians＇ work and historical reality in the 20th century Western historical theories can be divided into three different orientations, i.e. reconstructionism, constructionism, and deconstructionism. The present paper aims to give an analysis of these three approaches. The author holds that the main feature of the postmodernist historical theories in these problems can be characterized as the textualization of history, the supremacy of historical interpretation over historical facts, and the pluralism of historical interpretation.