Abstract

MARTINEZ, Carolina. On the impact of the linguistic turn in cultural history and its implications in the study of travel literature as a source. Prismas [online]. 2016, vol.20, n.1, pp.1-11. ISSN 1852-0499.

A product of theoretical confluences developed in different fields of the social sciences, the so-called linguistic turn emerged strongly in certain American academic circles in the 60s and 70s of the twentieth-century. Within the discipline of history, its impact soon led to a strong revision of the epistemological foundations on which it had hitherto rested and therefore to the questioning of the validity of its practices, the latter being understood as the means by which historical writing was authorized to articulate a discourse with a claim to truth. In the particular field of cultural history, the problem of the contextualization and decontextualization of sources as well as that of their one-dimensional interpretation are currently presented as the most striking consequences of the impact this tendency has had in the practice of historiography. The present study will thus focus on these and other related questions, making particular emphasis on the interference of the linguistic turn in cultural history and more particularly on its impact in the study of early modern European travel literature.

Keywords : Linguistic turn; Cultural history; Travel literature; Context.

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