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一个6G写作5.5分的人在临考四天前的一篇限时作文 Issue 110
According to the speaker, historians are essentially storytellers for the reason that they have to construct history by interpreting discrete evidence, which the author asserts is more of a creative pursuit than an objective one. While I concede that it is necessary and meaningful for historians to build up a clear picture of history by the interpretation of evidence available to them, I disagree strongly that such exploration is a creative and subjective process. Additionally, I also take exception to the author's assertion that defines historians as storytellers which is potentially misleading and might confuse the real nature and mission of historians with that of other widely accepted storytellers such as poets, novelists and play writers.
Admittedly, almost all work of the historians bases on the interpretation of evidence at hand since historians cannot experience the past in person. For example, historians who desire to research into the spread of some life-threatening epidemics in Europe during the medieval ages have to resort to the historic records and documents to find relevant evidence and then analyze, sort out and apply the useful information to present the concrete and clear picture of the special situation during that time. Even for the historians who record the life of the contemporary society can not witness all the matters and it is wholly possible that they carry out researches on the affairs that take place in other places that they have never been personally. Imagine, for example, a hypothetical historian who has never traveled to Asia intends to conduct research on the regime of Taliban in Afghanistan. What he/she does is similar to the historians focusing on the history of the past, that is to gather innumerable information, to pick out the meaningful ones and then interpret these evidence. Although this example is merely an imagination, but it, along with the former example, pinpoints the nature and mission of historians primarily rely on interpreting evidence to construct history.
Nevertheless, I disagree with the author insofar as such process of interpreting evidence is a creative rather than an objective one. To illustrate this point, I would like to make an analogy between the work of physicist whose tasks are to interpret the physical world around us and that of historians. Any observant person can easily find out that although the subject matter of the two kinds of researchers are fundamentally distinct, the process that they have to follow to complete their tasks is similar, both of which involves the process mentioned above. Some people may argue that in physics there are countless principles, theories and axioms that researchers can comply with to ensure the objectivity of their researches. However, although there might lack so many rigid frameworks for historians to abide by, the underlying assumption that any serious historian is required to follow is to establish all their interpretations on the basis of the factual evidence. In reality, it is a universal groundwork for both historians and physicists to base all their endeavor on fact and objectivity. In short, the inquiry of historians is an objective process by nature.
Moreover, I contend that " storytellers" might be an inappropriate term to define historians, which easily induce people to confuse the work of historians with that of other true storytellers such as novelists and so forth. Yet a clear line must be drawn between the usually called storytellers and historians. While the former can create any historic events unfetteredly for whom history only serves as the carrier of the emotion and feeling that they try to convey the later have to respect and follow the historic fact rigidly. Historians are by no means granted the license to create history in line with their envision and imagination. Although the personal experience, training, perspective and other innate aspects of historians tend to result in the bias and deviation in the interpretation from facts, these are the inextricable and objective elements to successful interpretation of history. For example, although storytellers such as Charles Dickens can create various fake historical events to mirror the poverty and social stratification during the Victorian era historians focusing on the society of the same time period have to depict the social picture accurately and precisely according to the records passed down from that time. In short, it is inaccurate and improper to view historians as storytellers which might grant historians excessive rights in distorting history rather than interpreting it.
To sum up, while I consent to the author that the work of historians indispensably involves the interpretation of historic evidence, I strongly disagree to view this process as a creative and subjective one. Furthermore, it is preposterous to call historians storytellers which deviates from the true tasks and nature of historians. |
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