Tropics of Discourse: Essays in Cultural Criticism

by Hayden White

Tropics of Discourse develops White's ideas on interpretation in history, on the relationship between history and the novel, and on history and historicism. Vico, Croce, Derrida, and Foucault are among the figures he assesses in this work, which also offers original interpretations of a number of literary themes, including the Wild Man and the Noble Savage. White's commentary ranges from a reappraisal of Enlightenment history to a reflective summary of the current state of literary criticism.

Genres: History, Philosophy, Theory, Nonfiction, Literary Criticism, Criticism, Essays

287 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Hayden White was a historian in the tradition of literary criticism, perhaps most famous for his work Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Europe (1973). He was professor emeritus at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and held position of professor of comparative literature at Stanford University.

White received his B.A. from Wayne State University in 1951 and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Michigan (1952 and 1956, respectively). While an undergraduate at Wayne State, White studied history under William J. Bossenbrook, who inspired several undergraduates who later went on to achieve academic distinction in the field of history, including White, H. D. "Harry" Harootunian, and Arthur C. Danto (The Uses of History).

Hayden V. White has made contributions to the philosophy of history and literary theory. His books and essays analyze the narratives of nineteenth-and twentieth-century historians and philosophers, suggesting that historical discourse is a form of fiction that can be classified and studied on the basis of its structure and its use of language. White ultimately attacks the notion that modern history texts present objective, accurate explanations of the past; instead, he argues that historians and philosophers operate under unarticulated assumptions in arranging, selecting, and interpreting events. These assumptions, White asserts, can be identified by examining the form and structure of texts themselves, providing valuable information about the attitudes of the author and the context in which he or she has written. Furthermore, as White postulates in Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Europe, historical discourse can be classified into the literary patterns of tragedy, comedy, romance, and irony.

In a review in the Journal of Modern History, Allan Megill wrote: "Taken together, White's books and essays have done much to alter the theory of history. Although his focus on trope and narrative is far from what most historians are interested in, they are all aware of his work." The critic added that White "is able to speak fluently and interestingly on an astonishingly wide variety of matters."

Most scholars agree that White's most important work is Metahistory. The book grew out of its author's interest in the reasons why people study—and write—history. Dictionary of Literary Biography contributor Frank Day observed that in Metahistory White "adapted ideas from Giambattista Vico and other students of rhetoric and literary history to produce an intricate analysis of nineteenth-century historians in terms of their methods of emplotment. . . . White's broad purpose in Metahistory is to trace how the nineteenth-century historians escaped from the Irony that dominated Enlightenment historiography and from the 'irresponsible faith' of the Romantics, only to lapse back into Irony at the end of the century." The implications for historians and literary theoreticians lay in the "application of rhetorical tropes to narrative discourse," to quote Day.

Reviews

[Cristina · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Tropics of Discourse: Essays in Cultural Criticism, Hayden White discusses the problems and promises of history. Human nature has made us curious, cerebral beings. We thrive on questions perhaps even more than we thrive on answers, and it is namely the more problematic issues--culture, society, and history, among others--that intrigue and baffle us. And yet, our “discourse always tends to slip away from our data towards the structures of consciousness with which we are trying to grasp them; or, what amounts to the same thing, the date always resist the coherency of the image which we are trying to fashion of them” (White 1). In other words, the “Big Picture” is often ungraspable, like sand sifting through our fingers. We must grapple with it throughout existence, pass this grappling down through generations just as we have inherited it, and attempt to make sense of our experiences as best we can. White’s collection of essays attempt to deal with the tropical element ingrained in all discourse, “whether of the realistic or the more imaginative kind” (1-2). It is this element that White calls “inexpungeable from discourse in the human sciences, however realistic they may aspire to be” (2). He adds that tropic is “the shadow from which all realistic discourse tries to flee” (2).

And yet, this is a hopeless flight, “for tropic is the process by which all discourse constitutes the objects which it pretends only to describe realistically and to analyze objectively. How tropes function in the discourses of the human sciences,” ultimately, is at the root of White’s essays in this collection (2) . White borrows the idea of tropes and their sundry uses from Harold Bloom, who suggests that a trope is the linguistic equivalent of a psychological mechanism of defense. White adds that troping is both “a movement from one notion of the way things are related to another notion, and a connection between things so that they can be expressed in a language that takes account of the possibility of their being expressed otherwise” (2). Troping is crucial to discourse, the latter being an “effort” to earn a “right of expression” (2). Thus, White says, we can agree with Bloom’s contention that “all interpretation depends upon the antithetical relation between meanings and not the supposed relation between text and its meaning” (2).

White uses a “fourfold pattern” rooted in an archetypal structure, also based upon an overlapping of theories from which he draws. The structure requires that a narrative “I” of a discourse move from an original metaphoric characterization of an experience, through metonymic deconstructions of the elements of this experiential domain, and then on to synechdochic representations. In this third stage, the relationship between the presumed essence and its superficial attributes will be, White insists, revealed. The fourth step in the process is the arrival of a representation of “whatever contracts or oppositions can legitimately be discerned in the totalities identified in the third phase of discursive representation” (5). Giambattista Vico, G.W.F. Hegel, and Karl Marx hold similar views, suggesting that, in this final point, this “diataxis of discourse not only mirrored the processes of consciousness but in fact underlay and informed all efforts of human beings to endow their world with meaning” (5). Moreover, Freud’s evaluation of the four processes of the dreamwork overlap with White’s four tropes of discourse. Hence, the pattern is set; the theorists are aligned (or where they are not, they at least offer an alternative and complimentary look at one another). The final result of Tropics of Discourse is an artful use of the tropes to indicate their function as the signs and stages in the evolution of human consciousness, and how this consciousness evaluates history.

[Zachary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good selection of essay, first few are rather outstanding. I actually liked this better than the Content of the Form, and his writing is pretty exceptional. I also think he's clearer here on the fictional nature of all history.

[John David · Rating 4 out of 5]

In lieu of a formal review, I’ll leave links to the series of conversations between Daniel Rose, Davood Gozli and me. We discussed the introduction and each of White’s twelve essays separately, with most discussions running around 45 minutes each.

Introduction – Tropology, Discourse, and the Modes of Human Consciousness – https://youtu.be/HOSC-r86PjE (Only Davood and I participated in this conversation.)

Chapter 1 – The Burden of History - https://youtu.be/gmCsTQDfc3k (Only Davood and Daniel participated in this conversation.)

Chapter 2 – Interpretation in History - https://youtu.be/Num4TYgVdv8

Chapter 3 – The Historical Text as Literary Artifact - https://youtu.be/7-gXjjFyc-o

Chapter 4 – Historicism, History, and the Figurative Imagination - https://youtu.be/SJ_IWA10Cww

Chapter 5 – The Fictions of Factual Representation - https://youtu.be/A1Lhvt7b4Bs

Chapter 6 – The Irrational and the Problem of Historical Knowledge in the Enlightenment - https://youtu.be/cYAjt0dUeIY

Chapter 7 – The Forms of Wildness: Archaeology of an Idea - https://youtu.be/Cah4OB_Vw-8

Chapter 8 – The Noble Savage Theme as Fetish - https://youtu.be/ne8PQVHMPEo

Chapter 9 – The Tropics of History: The Deep Structure of the New Science - https://youtu.be/VUXKJdZQc-E

Chapter 10 – What is Living and What is Dead in Croce’s Criticism of Vico - https://youtu.be/3RZmuAnwWeo

Chapter 11 – Foucault Decoded: Notes from Underground - https://youtu.be/TKriU6AFcBI

Chapter 12 – The Absurdist Moment in Contemporary Literary Theory - https://youtu.be/zHjAunvv5xc

[Aldon Rau]

I have gotten behind on my reading of late, having become occupied with various other pursuits-learning to crawl, stand up, and the like. I found this book to be an excellent starting place for getting back into more intellectual pursuits. The bright color of the cover and large typeface practically commands one to investigate further. The book is not too large to be manageable, and the emphasis on making explicit one's own circumstances as a participant in discourse (say, one's mother attempting to distract one from playing with the DVD player by handing one a book) is ideal for any individual who is just beginning to grasp the concept of being-in-the-world.

[Jonathan Barnett · Rating 3 out of 5]

A repetitive but useful supplement to White's Metahistory. Aided in my understanding of his 4-4-4-4 framework of Trope/Explanatory Scheme/Plot/Ideology.

More disappointed in his last two essays regarding Foucault in particular and the post-structuralists in general. I want substantive critiques and/or commentary on these thinkers (especially since I'm reading Foucault and it's good to hear how people describe his philosophy) but I was surprised at how vitriolic these two essays were compared to the bulk of the collection. They fall into that genre of critiquing post-anything with 'they want to remove all meaning!!! nothing matters according to these guys!!! they hate your field of study!!!'. I need more than that, but that's all I got from the last two essays. Maybe I'll appreciate his critique more once I've really entered the postmodern weeds.

Still, I recommend.

[Aurelio Guerra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite its mostly structuralist approach to the study of History, and literature, the book offers a series of essays that seem very well thought through, intelligent and profound. In a way this book complements and is complemented by his Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Europe, which is also an excellent book to read.

[Trevor · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tough read, but worth it (most of the time).

[Miss · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like Hayden White. I like the ideas he is proposing. I find him convincing. I know that he later gives alternatives to the old ways of historiography but in this collection of essays he is convincly showing how history is still an art, that the distinction between literature and history is only a farce. No one can escape language and its laws. Language which is connected to our consciousness and our structuring of the world. It's a devastating point because it makes the idea of an objective science impossible. But instead of giving up, an honest consciousness about these facts can lead to a better historiography. There is freedom in the mind, there is freedom in language and in the end we use language, it doesn't use us.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

White analyzes the discourse of historiography—the language employed in the writing of history—calling attention to the generic narrative forms historians use, and how these latter are reflected in the figures of speech or “tropes” the historians deploy.

Acquired May 29, 2000
Gift from parents

[Gary Norris · Rating 5 out of 5]

diatactic not dialectic

[Christy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Should be read more than many of the late 20th century critics who are currently considered required reading for the literary scholar, IMO.

[Joni · Rating 4 out of 5]

would claim it a classic. just read it

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good stuff, and good for you.