The Poetry of History in Early Modern India

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison Busch
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Important Resource ◽  
Historical Culture

This chapter shows how Hindi poetry can be an important resource for understanding the Mughal period (1526–1857). Mughal historians have largely relied on Persian and European sources, but much can be gained by examining the local historical cultures that were cultivated in Indian vernacular languages. Busch focuses on a specific Hindi work, the Binhai Raso of Maheshdas Rao, which tells the story of the Mughal succession war of 1658 from the viewpoint of the Gaur Rajputs who fought (and died) in defence of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan. Since the materials are primarily literary rather than documentary in nature, they present challenges to would-be historian of historical culture, but they have the potential to contribute new perspectives not only to the field of Mughal history, but to the re-theorisation of Indian historiographical practices.

‘That ubiquitous monarch’

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martha Vandrei
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Local History ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Early Modern Drama ◽  
Specific Site ◽  
Modern Drama ◽  
Popular Narrative ◽  
Historical Culture

This chapter extends the chronology to the first half of the twentieth century, when Boudica emerged as a figure in modern popular culture, particularly in film. But she also acted as an embodiment of local history and identity, once again puncturing the notion that she was merely an icon of empire with no specific ‘site of memory’. Rather, this chapter shows how Boudica came to be associated most notably with the historical narrative of Wales—though not unproblematically. She was also associated with more local histories, in the east of England, where her story was celebrated through the medium of historical pageants. These forms of historical culture show the persistence of history as a form of popular narrative, particularly in the crossovers between early modern drama and twentieth-century film and pageantry. Thus this chapter argues for the localized nature of historical culture, and for Boudica’s geographic and chronological persistence.

scholarly journals Memory and Historical Culture in Early Modern England

2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 283-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Woolf
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
The Past ◽  
Historical Culture ◽  
Personal Community ◽  
Printed Word

Abstract The place of memory in the thought and culture of early modern England has been often discussed, but usually in the context of the more esoteric aspects of Renaissance culture, such as "memory theatres." Using printed and manuscript sources, this essay reviews the uses of memory and contemporary attitudes toward its importance, with particular attention to its use in the preservation of the past. A distinction is posited between three levels of memory: personal, community, and social, each of which is studied in turn. It is suggested that the formation of a national historical culture in early modern England derives in part from the changing balance between dependence on memory and the use of the written!printed word to commemorate and communicate the past.

A VICTORIAN INVENTION? THOMAS THORNYCROFT'S ‘BOADICEA GROUP’ AND THE IDEA OF HISTORICAL CULTURE IN BRITAIN

2014 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 485-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARTHA VANDREI
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
The Past ◽  
Specific Focus ◽  
History Of ◽  
Longue Duree ◽  
Historical Culture ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Contemporary Context

ABSTRACTThis article examines the figure of Boudica (or Boadicea), with a specific focus on Thomas Thornycroft's Westminster Bridge statue, and on the work of the seventeenth-century antiquary, Edmund Bolton. By synthesizing historiography which investigates the idea of ‘historical culture’ in the modern and early modern periods, this article attempts to bridge chronological and generic divisions which exist in the study of the history of history. It argues that to fully understand the genealogy of popular historical ideas like Boudica, it is imperative that historians of such subjects take alongue-duréeapproach that situates individual artists and writers, and the historical-cultural works they produce, within their broader political, cultural, and social contexts while simultaneously viewing these works as part of a long, discursive process by which the past is successively reinterpreted. As a consequence, this article eschews an analysis of Boudica which labels her an ‘imperial icon’ for Victorian Britons, and argues that the relationship between contemporary context and the re-imagined past is not as straightforward as it might initially appear.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martha Vandrei
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Public History ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Creative Processes ◽  
Scholarly Literature ◽  
The Past ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Culture ◽  
The Way

This chapter introduces the reader to the story of Boudica, beginning in the early modern period. It also introduces what is meant by ‘historical culture’, and discusses the manner in which these two themes open up wider questions about the creative processes inherent in reconstructing the past. It discusses the distinction between approaches to the history of history, including memory and public history, as well as the existing scholarly literature about Boudica’s posthumous reputation. It goes on to argue that historical ideas are the product of complex, individualized processes, through which scholars can move beyond an understanding of the past as epiphenomenal to any single present. It establishes the argument, methodology, and audience for the book, noting in particular the way in which historical culture encourages a renewed focus on the importance of ‘truth’ in understanding the past’s relationship to successive presents.

Review of Locke, Language and Early-Modern Philosophy by Hannah Dawson

Locke Studies ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 201-209
Author(s):  
Walter Ott
Keyword(s):  
Modern Philosophy ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
History Of Ideas ◽  
Valuable Contribution ◽  
Early Modern Philosophy ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
Important Resource ◽  
History Of ◽  
Modern Thinking ◽  
Intellectual Climate

Hannah Dawson’s book, the latest in Cambridge University Press’s ‘Ideas in Context’ series, is a valuable contribution to the history of ideas. More than half of the book is devoted to the background and context of early modern thinking about language, with a final third or more focusing on Locke. Marshalling an impressive array of sources, some of which are only available in manuscript form, Dawson provides an important resource for those interested not just in Locke’s thought but in the intellectual climate generally. Though there is much useful material here, I have some reservations.

Rousseau and Republicanism

2015 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annelien de Dijn
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Important Resource ◽  
Philip Pettit ◽  
Tyranny Of The Majority

Rousseau was arguably one of the most important and influential of eighteenth-century republican thinkers. However, contemporary republican theorists, most notably Philip Pettit, have written him out of the republican canon by describing Rousseau as a “populist” rather than a republican. I argue that this miscasting of Rousseau is not just historically incorrect but that it has also led to a weakening of contemporary republican political theory. Rousseau was one of the few early modern republican thinkers to take seriously the problem of the tyranny of the majority and to attempt to formulate a cogent answer to that problem. Ignoring his contribution to republican political thought therefore cuts off contemporary republicans from an important resource for thinking about this problem.

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