Between The New Social History And Cultural History: Davis Women's History Analysis

Natalie Zemon Davis not only is a well-known historian on sixteenth-century French history and the social & cultural history of early modern period, but also has some influence in the field of women's history. The thesis will explore her historiography thought of women's and gender history by analyzing her main works and papers. Furthermore, it will discuss how Davis's works embody the main features of New Social History and New Cultural History.Davis is one of the historians who firstly use the conception of'gender'. In 1975, Davis put forward some theoretic and interpretive questions of women's history which based on her own works and study. Her great contribution is emphasizing the difference between sex and gender, which is the theoretic foundation of other historians who develop gender theory further. Among her academic works,"women"always plays a very important role in her academic study. And then, research perspective of gender and sex difference is also evidently shown in her most studies.New Social History and New Cultural History, which appeared and developed in the latter half of the twentieth century, are two mainstreams of western historiography. As Davis is one of the chief protagonists and forerunners, her research study can be seen as the epitome of these two historiography tendencies. The following two aspects embody her studies on women's history characterize as orientations of New Social History and New Cultural History. Firstly, the object of her study: Davis aims at common women who were traditionally dismissed as inarticulate by other historians. These crowd and general people are just the main study objects of the New Social History. Secondly, the writing strategy and research style: Davis insists on history study from micro-history view, and also attaches importance to the spiritual world of the common women. Meanwhile, Davis uses narrative style of writing for describing those women's inner world vividly. The micro-history view and narrative style with thick description are both major important features of the New Cultural History.Davis's historiography thought is one part of the whole tendency of New Social History and New Cultural History. Their relationship is interactive. On the one hand, Davis's research profits from the new theory and the method from other historians in the field of the new social history and cultural history. On the other hand, Davis also leads and advances this new tendency of western historiography.