A Study On Lynn Hunt's Writings Of Human Rights History

Since 1960s,academic fields began the trend called Linguistic Turn or Cultural Turn.It is one of the most significant outcomes of the trend for historical research to promote the birth of New Cultural History.Lynn Hunt is a representative historian of New Cultural History.Both foreign and domestic historical fields have paid attention to Lynn Hunt's academic thoughts.But specific to her human rights studies,it is still not enough.Lynn Hunt's human rights studies have deeply theoretical roots.The fundamental premise is the expansion of culture as a term.Specifically,anthropology made the traditional definition of culture more expansive,more historicist,more symbolic resulting that human rights as a political concept can be examined by cultural perspective.Lynn Hunt's human rights studies encompass every part of human rights including its emergence,development and influence.Hunt argues that in the late 18th century,popular psychology accepted the ideas of body independence and mind empathy in order to make human rights possible.At last,the revolution of France and America announced the birth of human rights officially.Since then,under the support of human rights,more and more people could enjoy the citizenship,but there are still some groups were excluded from possessing rights.During the process of research,Lynn Hunt reflects three personal features—description of context,fusion of disciplines and multiple historical materials.Finally,there are some unique influences of Lynn Hunt's studies.First,it improved Hunt's own research system.Second,it promoted the development of New Cultural History.Third,it extended studies of human rights history.In conclusion,paying attention to Lynn Hunt's human rights studies is not only to complete the researches of her own thoughts but also to study the relationship of human rights and culture.Via analyzing the structure and logic of Lynn Hunt's human rights works,the intersection of human rights history and New Cultural History in historiography can be teased out clearly.