Литературната история и проблемът с периодизацията
Literary History and the Problem of Periodization

Summary/Abstract: The author claims that when we think historical events, literary texts, or cultural phenomena, we usually relate them to schools and movements and to a larger historical trajectory. He says that we can not simply relate literary texts to specific historical context, not only because the literary text is much more multifaceted than the picture of an era we tent to paint, but also because the historical context itself is available only in the form of textual mediations. Our understanding of history itself is based on certain ideological dispositions and always entails our individual narratives of history. Clemens Spahr concludes that periodization is a contradictory operation whereby we classify literary and cultural documents to their historical positions. He poses the question of defining literary eras and their historical borders, and the problem of imposing the concept of totality. The author discusses the theoretical implications and practical consequences of understanding literary texts as responses to particular social, cultural and institutional formations. He also turns to a case study – literary production of the Harlem Renaissance – that illustrates how problematic and productive is the concept of periodization.

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