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Encyclopédie des historiographies : Afriques, Amériques, Asies

 | 
Nathalie Kouamé
, 
Éric P. Meyer
, 
Anne Viguier

The Impetus behind the Encyclopaedia of Historiography

Nathalie Kouamé, Éric P. Meyer et Anne Viguier

Résumé

Œuvre collective élaborée de manière progressive, l’Encyclopédie des historiographies est mue par la volonté de faire connaître à un large public l’extrême diversité des récits sur le passé produits hier et aujourd’hui en Afrique, en Amérique latine, en Asie, et dans toutes les autres parties du monde qui ne sont pas incluses dans ce qu’il est convenu d’appeler l’Occident (Europe et Amérique du Nord). L’Encyclopédie révèle ainsi la richesse et la complexité de la pensée humaine confrontée au temps révolu. Ce faisant, l’ouvrage laisse aussi voir des pans entiers du fonctionnement des sociétés qui pensent l’histoire. L’Encyclopédie va donc bien au-delà d’une simple présentation du « métier d’historien » et, même, de l’« historiographie » (histoire de la discipline historique), puisque y sont examinées et déchiffrées, dans les contextes socioculturels qui les ont produites, toutes sortes de discours ou de représentations relatifs au passé.

Texte intégral

1What is the relationship between human society and its past? The Encyclopaedia of Historiography. Africa, America, Asia (EHA) seeks to answer this question.

2Narratives about the past are at the heart of this publication. Its main objective is to compile and explore the discourse and practices, whether they come about in a spontaneous or in an organised fashion, that connect people to the past. This relationship to the past is complex and multi-faceted. Indeed, it encompasses both commemorating and forgetting as well as denial and artifice. This collaborative effort covers a broad range of human thought that spans all periods, in (nearly) all parts of the world and in many forms (“scientific”, literary, artistic, monumental, etc.).

3Using the encyclopaedic form to represent the sheer volume of work that exists in this infinite realm is necessary. In this case, the EHA progressively develops the themes that embrace various aspects related to the topic. These themes structured the editorial process; they are listed below: Sources and genres (EHA, vol. 1) Volume I of The Encyclopaedia of Historiography, Schools of thought, trends, concepts, topics, debates, leading figures, authors, works, publications, events, institutions, place (later sections in the EHA publication process).

4The content covered demonstrates that this intellectual enterprise is fully embedded in an epistemological approach that involves the study of various historical writings or historiography, which we consider in the broadest sense of the term, meaning it encompasses all forms and all media whether they are oral, corporeal or material. They must resolutely express or inadvertently reveal narratives about the past. Examples can include, but are not limited to, manuscripts, printed publications, speeches, songs, poems, dance, rites and ceremonies, theatrical productions, but also visual works, buildings, artisanal or industrial products, coins, medals. This clearly shows that this encyclopaedia goes well beyond a reflection on the role of historians or, in other words, the professional historians.

5The decision was taken to focus on the history of African, American and Asian historiography. Critical readers, whether they are academics, students or simply members of the general public, will surely be surprised and perhaps even outraged to notice that what one still refers to as “the West” is absent, or barely present in the encyclopaedia despite the fact that this part of the world was, and in some ways still is, at the forefront of historical writing’s most sophisticated forms. To what kind of legitimacy can an encyclopaedia on historiographical practices lay claim when the works of Herodotus, Jean Mabillon or Arnold Toynbee are relegated to the background? How can we explain the absence of entries devoted to the birth and development in the West of positivism, the Annales school, Marxist currents of thought, microstoria, gender studies or global history? As editors, our response to these questions is simple: a sufficient body of work devoted to the historical study of narratives about the past from Europe and North American already exists in the West, particularly in France. In other words, the EHA is interested in historical writing that remains largely unknown in the West (and elsewhere, as other parts of the world do not necessarily communicate with each other). This in spite of their importance to historical thought worldwide. The Encyclopaedia of Historiography’s humanist dimension is underscored through the importance attributed to these unknown historiographies, which it considers to be one of the most valuable representations of humankind and society’s diversity.

6This said, Western historiographical writing is not completely absent from the EHA. How could it be when the West made a concerted effort to spread its “science of history” throughout the world during the 19th and 20th centuries, just as it managed to export its economic model, its political institutions and its culture? In other words, African, Latin American and Asian historians’ work is partially rooted in the Western historical tradition. They are constantly engaged with it, sometimes inspire it (e.g., the Indian historical current of Subaltern Studies) and sometimes refute it (e.g., the Senegalese Cheikh Anta Diop’s work). However, as soon as we go back through time in order to retreat from the current context, world historical writing, influenced by phenomena related to circulation, borrowing, international mimetics, etc., does not owe anything to the West. Moreover, even when the West wants to shape local historiography, this historiography always draws from intellectual, social, political and cultural traditions that are specific to the region. This gives rise to historical writing that is deeply mixed; one cannot write about the past in the same way in Delhi, Dakar or Mexico. Moreover in a given region, writing about the past cannot be carried out in a monolithic way; generation, social class, political affiliation, gender, level of education, religious faith, regional loyalties, etc. profoundly inform, brand and differentiate historical writing wherever stories of the past are told. We are aware that the terms of ‘Africa', ‘America', ‘Asia', which, incidentally, come from the West, refer to diverse groups of people and cultures which cannot simply be defined through strict spatial criteria. Furthermore, these terms do not promote an understanding of the world in terms of migratory, material or cultural circulation and they occlude maritime worlds such as Oceania which fall under the purview of the EHA.

7Though innovative, this encyclopaedic endeavour is not completely new. For examples, please refer to the following Anglo-Saxon, relatively recent publications: Daniel Woolf (A Global Encyclopaedia of Historical Writing, 1998, A Global History of History, 2011), Kelly Boyd (Encyclopaedia of Historians and Historical Writing, 1999), and the five volumes of The Oxford History of Historical Writing (2010-2015). The voluminous Japanese publication (13000 pages) Rekishigaku jiten "Historiography dictionary" (1994-2009) has also to be cited. However, from a world or global history perspective, these publications deal extensively with Western historians and historiographies, both of which are marginal in the EHA. Moreover, unlike our colleagues mentioned above, we were not saddled with the responsibility to be exhaustive in our coverage of historiography. After all, no single publication can encompass the entirety of narratives about the past that have ever existed! Our objective is to provide a broad range of narratives and offer an abundance of entries that explore historiography from every angle. That said, what this encyclopaedia lacks in exhaustiveness, it makes up for by being thorough. Several entries are long and delve deeply into specific aspects of historical writing. We had confidence in each writer’s ability to determine the length they needed to adequately cover their topic. The authors were also given the choice to determine whether they preferred to write these well-researched articles in a scholarly style or a more accessible one. In the digital version of the encyclopaedia, the reader can easily go from one end to the other using the internal search function. Users have the option to select content “à la carte” and navigate through content that covers with the entire world in all historical periods. Furthermore, making this material freely available online gives the public access to a rather vast treasure trove of knowledge on narratives about the past. Finally, as for the choice to include texts written primarily in French (though several entries are written in other languages), we would like to inscribe this work in the debates and current trends involving French historiography with the hope that a francophone audience of foreign descent can access our work.

8On a final note and to conclude this introduction to the topic, we would like to extend our gratitude to each member of the editorial committee and the authors and coordinators who allowed us to bring this project to fruition. A price tag cannot be placed on their knowledge, their mastery of the languages (and thus, their access to primary and secondary sources) as well as their expertise in the cultural periods covered and their availability. For their invaluable contribution to this achievement, they deserve all our thanks.

9Finally, we would like to thank our Research Centre for their support, as well as the Presses de l’Inalco team for their work.

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