"Rectification of Human Names": E.P. Thompson and Contemporary Debates on Historical and Epistemological Discourse
Manuel Yang
Document Type
Article
Abstract
E. P. Thompson used the Confucian trope of “rectification of human names” to summarize the major themes of his work. Such rectification has both political and scholarly ramifications that extend to poststructuralist debates over historical discourse (Ranajit Guha’s meditation on the method of Subaltern Studies, Hayden White’s theory of rhetorical universalism); organic relationship between working-class gesture, linguistic philosophy, and political economy (as...