Liv Egholm,
“Travel Accounts as Cultural Signs. A microhistorian analysis about the meaning of the “meeting” in theory and praxis.”

Journal of Microhistory, 2006, New material: 16.05.2006

Liv Egholm defended her doctural dissertation the 18th of February 2005 at University of Southern Denmark. The thesis was written in Danish and will soon be published in the same language.

Summary in English

The dissertation;”Travel Accounts as Cultural Signs. A microhistorian analysis about the meaning of the “meeting” in theory and praxis” explores a theoretical as well as a specific practical problematique.

Chapter 1 gives an account of the two “problem descriptions”, their reasons and the connection between them and also of the reasons why, I have structured the dissetation in a different way than normally done. In different terms the theoretical and practical problem descriptions are based on each other and the dissertation will therefore show not only how they relate to each other but also how the different practical hypotheses are combined. This is shown through a processual manier de écrire

The theoretical “problem description” is based on the post-structual critique, which problemize the correspondence between a given historic source and the past, as well as the illusion of the language as a transparent medium. “The linguistic turn” has established a critical agenda with regards to the basis of the science of history, and the question about the relation of language to the world and its formative role has been raised. On this background the dissertation will discuss the idea of the historical source and status of the historical narrative in the microhistorical theories and methodologies which is used in the practical analyses of the dissertation. Furthermore, the question whether microhistory (microstoria) as a new methodology can offer a possible mode for the writing of history in the period of the linguistic turn, will be explored.

In every practical historical research the questions about the source and the status of the narrative are accentuated, even though these relations not always has been discussed so tensed. This is why the microhistorical treatment of these subjects will be explored through a practical microhistorical analysis of a case-study.

The practical “problem describtion” explores how the idea of being a secularised civilised human being could be established through the “meeting” with “the strange” in the beginning of the Italian renaissance. This is primarily illuminated through a microhistorian analysis of the travel account, Itinerario by Ludovico de Varthema, from 1510.

Chapter 2 contains a general historiographical and theoretical discussion of microhistory. The microhistorical approach is described through the idea of culture, which is based on the idea that “culture” is negotiated all the time, and that this negotiation is placed in the currently lived life. This is the reason why the microhistoricans use a concentrated scale of analysis, where the turning point is placed in the practical life of few named individuals, studied through a “thick description”. The methodological grips are introduced on the basis of their theoretical pillars. The question of representation- what count as representative- is discussed in general, and the idea of “the normal exception” is presented. The particular form of microhistorian representation, which is characterized by the distinct presence of the author in the text, the use of very long quotes from the sources, and the ongoing try out of hypotheses, is portrayed and discussed in relation to its perception-value. Finally it is discussed whether or not the microhistorian approach is capable of serious replies to the post-modern challenge.

Chapter 3 presents the connection between constructivism and the historiography of identity. This leads naturally to a presentation af Ludovico de Varthema, his travelling rute and his travel account, in addition with besides its motivation and the research which earlier has been conducted on it.

In this chapter, it is argued that the analysis of the travel account falls in 3 parts based on the identification of 3 different narrative speeds in the travel account .

In chapter 4 the subject is a circumscription of the genre used by the travel accounts and their different purposes. This is related to the definition of the secularized traveller by Joan-Pau Rubiés. His definition is contained in the idea of the individual view as expressed in a first-person narrator, which at the same time de-contextualizes the travel account from position, occupation and purpose, and uses “the critical common sense”. Two further points about the secularized traveller are elaborated in the dissertation. The first is rooted in a practical logic; it is the concept of “the others” as human beings with a soul. The other is a moral “stato di anima”. From this point of view, the early travel accounts, Varthemas own travel account, and the later travel accounts, are analyzed in order to discuss wheter or not Varthema separate himself from these. This makes it fairly possible to view the book as “ the normal exception”. Varthema is characterized as a transitional figure, which reinterprete the tradition in a partly new edition containing both the traditional Christian religiosity as well as the secularized–humanistic features.

Chapter 5 analyzes the 1. narrative speed: Varthema´s view of the strangers. It is shown how the strangers generally are characterized in 3 categories, either as christians, muslim moors or pagans. Simultaneously with these three categorisations, 4 parameters of civilizations are pointed out. They are founded on the measure of how much the body is covered, the colour of the skin, the amount of wealth and the practice of trade, as well as shapes of weapons and juridical practices. In the travel account a contradictory story can exemplified, which results in another way of categorizing in the “meeting” with the unthinkable. The contradictory story gives a reason to discuss different aspects of the flexible view on strangers.

Chapter 6 examinates whether the discursivation of the strangers and hereby the establishing of identities was bound to the position of certain roles and models, which limited the identity to a set of specific qualities. To point out which figures of legitimacy Varthema uses in his travel account, a concentrated reading of the 2. narrative speed, which is found in the many small prologues and the appendix, is forwarded. It is argued that the primary figure of legitimation used in the travel account is the practical scientist, who by his personal inspection accomplished the true knowledge, which could enlighten “noble souls”. Also in this narrative speed, there can be observed a fissure in the use of truth paradigms in the travel account. Besides the more empirically founded paradigm of truth, we can detect a Christian paradigm of truth in the text, which again is strengthened in the “meeting” with the unthinkable, which then acts as mirror for the reflections of discursivation.

Chapter 7 analyze Varthemas self-fashioning through representation of his own role and his own actions at the journey, which can be observed in the 3. narrative speed. This displays how his self-fashioning is shaping and confirming the role he consciously or unconsciously considers wishful to fashion himself through. Varthemas use of the concept “ingengo” as analogous to the concept “prudense” is discussed through a close reading of his way to self-fashioning and his arguments about the hypocritical and simulation. Additionally his application of “reason” is analyzed as a accumulating notion, which keeps the contradictory stories together as a whole. It is proved how the concept of “reason” works as a line of demarcation, whereby the concept can be shared by both stoicism and humanism, with each of their own interpretation of the role played by “reason”.

Chapter 8 returns to the theoretical discussion of the idea of the source and the status of the historical tale, based on experiences from the empirical analysises. The different historical approahes, as the linguistic turn, the social constructivism and the funktionelle kildebegreb- concept of “the functional idea of source”. The intention is to formulate a concept of science, which on the one hand do not leave out of account the new knowledge about the meaning of the form and language, and on the other hand do not close and encircles language in it self.

To catch this tension, the “meeting” is pointed out as an important component in the creation of historical knowledge. The methodological operations are compared and discussed with the other historical approaches. The microhistorical idea of the source is discussed and its scientific ground is found in the peircian semiotic theory of signs, where the concept of abduction offers a concept of science, which uses both the notion of coherence and a reformulated notion of correspondence-theory. It is shown that these theories can be included in the concept of “the functional idea of source”, based on the paludanian definition of “levnsbegrebet” as based on theory.

Chapter 9 sums up the traces collected for the solution of both the practical and theoretical problem describtions. The solution at the practical problem description is based as well on the homogeneous and dominating story, as on the contradictory stories. It is shown how the turning point for the appearance of the contradictory stories is the occurence of the unthinkable. Based on the microhistorical analyses at chapter 5-7, the concept of “reason” is singled out as the comprehensive factor/idea, which is capable of encompassing two very different cosmologies, figures of legitimacy and self-fashionings. Based on the concluding remarks about the idea of the historical source at the microhistorical theory and methodology, the status of the empirical analyses are discussed. This includes the summing up of the idea of the “meeting” and the questions of utilizing both notions of correspondence and coherence. Finally the dissertations own written form is discussed and an answer to the question, whether the microhistorical analysises represent a third way, is reached.

Liv Egholm