Date: Sat, 16 Sep 1995 10:15:31 -0500 From: H-GERMAN EDITOR Dan Rogers Reply to: H-NET List on German History To: Multiple recipients of list H-GERMAN Subject: Postmodernism Submitted by: Charles E. McClelland The habit of building towers out of words is at least prehistorical. The "linguistic turn" (to which Ken Barkin devoted an entire issue of CEH) provoked less comment than his short talk to the AHA (an organization not recently notable for its commitment to ANY shared methodology, Rankean or otherwise.) It is perhaps symptomatic of the "discussions" on H-GERMAN that Ken just got around now to defending himself. I don't think he is on e-mail (he did not use to be -- think about the effort it takes to run an international journal dedicated to slow and methodical commication!) It is also symptomatic that there have been few attempts to carry on the discussion in a reasoned way. What about including H-FRANCE? Comp Lit and philosophy people have networks, too. Am I the only one who sits on dissertation committees with members of a distinguished Anthropology department and have to listen to my Anthro colleagues say, "Don't just quote Geertz and Foucault, have you done what their methods imply?" Because if they only babble citations, they will be lost. Ken Barkin has "uncovered" in his original talk, paper and reply some issues that are still being skirted by our US German studies community. Are we really setting the parameters of debate, staking out the limits of the "field of discourse" (Bourdieu); or are we personalizing and Verdinglich-ing our unstated agendas and annoyances? I certainly have my mind made up about Geyer, since I have taken the trouble to read his "works" and talk to his students. Postmodernist theory is a good camouflage for serious intellectual confusion and radical inconsistency. The world of scholarship will survive such fashions, as long as most of us are willing to use the first principle of historical scholarship -- skepticism -- and the second -- serious work. As William James always taught, Americans have an "intuitive" sense about life and scholarship. Somebody will have to convince them that outworn and derived ideas from Paris make more sense than functioning ideas about "everyday science" from America. Sincerely, Charles E. McClelland Chair, European Studies Program 1104 Mesa Vista Hall University of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM 87131-1181 USA tel: (505) 268-5047 (h) 277-2451 (receptionist) 277-6023 (fax) Internet: cemcc@unm.edu Bitnet: cemcc@unmb .