Historical returns

Abstract

Questions posed by Carolyn Steedman prompted this article on what cultural studies wants from history. Two larger arguments frame some answers. The first concerns ‘transdisciplinarity’, a new context for cultural studies, created by the ‘cultural turn’ in humanities and social sciences more generally. The second addresses the need to distinguish history as a discipline from a wider range of approaches that grasp the ‘historicity’ or ‘temporality’ of human life. The work of the hermeneutic philosopher, Paul Ricoeur, helps to identify this difference and engages with the double character of historical work: part empirical study, part ‘fiction’. The article itself can be read as a narrative about history and cultural studies – a story of debts and differences, polemics and splits, convergences and renewed dialogue. The article urges us to recognize the implications for historical cultural studies of moves towards ‘culturality’ in history.