Charitonidou, Marianna

Reinventing the Historical Posture: Theoretical Debates on Comparison and Transfers - 2016.


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This article presents a debate on historical comparison by reexamining the links between historical comparison and other disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. The questions guiding this debate are the following: What does comparison mean in history, beyond a simple debate on the comparability of sources? How can historical comparisons transcend national frames of reference? How do historians situate themselves in relation to other disciplines on the comparison of cultural transfers? How can one characterize the content of these debates? My intent in this article is to better outline the distinctions between a comparative approach, cross-cultural history, comparative history, the study of transfers, and a transnational approach to historical comparison. Thus, by revisiting these concepts and their origins, and by reexamining the relationship between these concepts and methods, my aim is to, on the one hand, present the internal debates on “definitions” and, on the other hand, to address programmatic perspectives of different historiographical postures.