%0 Journal Article
%T Seeing the Past/Reading the Past
%A Karen Bassi
%J Image and Narrative : Online Magazine of the Visual Narrative
%D 2011
%I Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
%X : Speaking of what he calls the "uneasy dialogue" between ancient historians and Classical archaeologists, Ray Laurence notes the absence of "a theory of representation of the material world in language." And he suggests that the cause of this uneasiness is a poor understanding of "the role of material objects in texts.¡± It may be going too far to suggest that this unease is due to the fact that inanimate objects and physical structures in texts necessarily refer to the temporal limits of human life. Nonetheless, such a theory must be based first of all on an understanding of their temporal effects; in disciplinary terms, it must establish the criteria by which physical objects and features become sources of historical ¡®evidence¡¯ or archaeological ¡®artefacts¡¯. How do we respond to the claim in a recent (2007) article in Brill's New Pauly Online, for example, that archaeological artefacts are "tangible evidence for the past" (Hauser 1, ¡°haptisches Zeugnis der Vergangenheit¡±)? While this claim may seem hopelessly naive, it has a history that can be traced to the anecdotal effects of physical objects described in ancient Greek narrative (cf. Fineman). Utilisding work in museum studies, thing theory, phenomenology, and the history of disciplines, this article brings this history into contact with contemporary archaeological theory and, more specifically, with the metaphor of ¡®reading¡¯ the past in its material remains. The question posed here is how objects within narrative prefigure ¡°the potential for narrative within the artefact.¡±   Resum¨¦: Dans son commentaire sur le "dialogue difficile" entre historiens de l'antiquit¨¦ et arch¨¦ologues traditionnels, Ray Laurence fait remarquer l'absence partag¨¦e d'une "th¨¦orie de la repr¨¦sentation verbale du monde mat¨¦riel". Il en conclut que la cause de ce manque de dialogue pourrait ¨ºtre une mauvaise compr¨¦hension du r le des objets mat¨¦riels dans le texte. Il est sans doute exag¨¦r¨¦ de penser que la difficult¨¦ en question est due au fait que tant les objets inanim¨¦s que les structures mat¨¦rielles repr¨¦sent¨¦es dans un texte renvoient in¨¦vitablement aux limites temporelles de l'existence humaine. Pourtant, il serait bon qu'une telle th¨¦orie soit bas¨¦e en premier lieu sur une meilleure compr¨¦hension de leurs effets temporels. Dit de mani¨¨re plus disciplinaire: une telle th¨¦orie doit ¨¦tablir les crit¨¨res qui permettent de transformer des objets ou des aspects mat¨¦riels de devenir des sources de "preuve" historique ou des "artefacts" arch¨¦ologiques. Comment r¨¦agir par exemple ¨¤ l'id¨¦e d¨¦fendue dans un article r¨¦cent (2007) d
%K Archaelogy
%K artefact
%K evidence
%K Greece
%K museum studies
%K reading
%U http://www.imageandnarrative.be/index.php/imagenarrative/article/view/159