谁在叙述谁的全球史:不对等与历史书写的陷阱

Inequality and Traps in Historical Writing in Global History Narrating

“全球史”是当下流行的一种历史书写方式。世界历史已/将得到客观表述,世界历史的创造者似乎都拥有平等的发言权,学术正越来越被视为一种同质化的行为方式。但在历史书写的实践中所呈现的是西方历史学家可以忽略非西方历史学家的作品,照样可以写出杰出的著作;非西方历史学家认为有必要参考西方的历史著作,否则就缺乏学术含量。这种现象是一种不对等,更是一种不平等,这种不对等是一种“无知的不对等”,源自一种源远流长的“不对等概念”:“文明”与“野蛮”“自由”与“奴役”等已经根深蒂固地镶嵌在西方文明的基因之中,只是随着时间的发展不断改变自身的表现形态,以一种更加客观的思想、观念、知识来呈现一种看似公平的“学术理想国”,实则在维护某种文化霸权。这些不对等观念在发展多样性的今天已备受质疑。质言之,全球史是西方史学发展的最新阶段,虽然有其积极的一面,但我们如果认识不到其背后的思想逻辑、话语逻辑、叙事逻辑、发展逻辑乃至政治逻辑,就只能永远深陷“所谓西方文化的大叙事”之中。

“Global History”as a type of historical writing prevails nowadays.Within this backdrop it seems that history of the world has been and will be objectively expressed;makers of world history have equal rights of expressing themselves and academic research tends to be regarded more and more as a homogeneous way of behavior.But one obvious fact about historical writing is that Western historians could produce remarkable works without paying attention to the writings of non-Western historians,whereas the latter are supposed to consult the former's works so as to reach at least an acceptable level of scholarly value.This is a kind of non-equivalence,an inequality that is ignorance in nature.Originating from long-standing concepts of inequality such as“civilization”and“barbarity”,“freedom”and“bondage”,and others that have been deeply rooted in(genes of)Western civilization,this non-equivalence phenomenon has been continuously changing its forms and expressions as time goes by.Therefore,what seems to be a just and fair“utopia of academia”grounded on more objective thoughts,ideas and knowledge is actually safeguarding cultural hegemony.Those asymmetrical concepts are widely challenged in the current world that encourages variety and diversity.In short,global history is the latest stage in the development of Western historiography,which has its positive aspects with no doubt,but if we fail to see the supporting logics behind:its ideological logic,discourse logic,narrative logic,developmental logic and political logic,we are to be forever trapped in the so-called“grand narratives of Western culture”.