Dorthe Gert Simonsen:
Past (in) translation. Empirical foundations in history after poststructuralism

Following Hayden White, reflections on history in the wake of the linguistic turn has often tended to focus on metahistorical issues, putting the question of empirical foundations of history in brackets. This article discusses how poststructuralism changes the concept of sources in the field of history, aiming at the development of new analytical strategies form poststructural theories. Translating the postcolonial debate about representation of the "cultural Other" to the question of the historian representing the "past Other", the article poses the question: What happens in the meeting with the unfamiliar, if a poststructuralist notion of discursive practice pertains to both present and past - the same and the other? Jacques Derridas theories of translation provides the background for developing a concept of historical sources as un/original events forming "hypothetical equivalences" in their translation of conflicting discourses. Methods emphasizing this performative aspect of sources are discussed in relation to the interpretation of sources in a more Geertzian oriented Cultural history.