Figural Realism

If Ricoeur is right about the need for narrative to represent time, White insists that Ricoeur’s emphasis on narrative as “found” and not “constructed” avoids the necessarily political nature of narrative construction. “What is imaginary about narrative representation is the idea of a centered consciousness looking out on to the world and represent

... See more

As my discussion of Kant and the modern universalism of Marxism and modernization theory reveals, reasoned analysis also requires a sacralization of the telos – here the utopian goal at the end of history. Faith and sacrifice remain necessary for human salvation. At the same time, the radical transcendence of the scientific human tends to blind us

... See more

And, of course, there is no magisterium to settle matters for us. Indeed, those institutions that functioned analogously to the magisterium but for matters of public interest—the press, the expert class, etc.—have been rendered just another set of interpreters. They may still see themselves as the orthodox sect, of course. But that is no guarantee ... See more

The problem with White’s understanding lies in his conception of narrative structures, which draws heavily and fatally, I believe, on structuralism. Thus, White wants to show that history and myth have important common elements in utilizing imaginative resources in their ‘configuration’, as it were, but both are also limited by the structural form

... See more