A Belated Attempt at Narrative

In “A Place for Stories: Nature, History, and Narrative,” William Cronon ends the nitty-gritty of his discussion of Great Plains historiography about four-fifths of the way through his essay. Then he writes, “Before going any further, I should probably confess my own uncertainty about how to navigate from here to a safe harbor, wherever it might be […] (Watch: I try one more tack to seek some shelter in this rhetorical storm.)” In doing so, he steps back from the his historiography narrative, and addresses his readers directly, telling them that the historiography narrative is not his article’s central narrative. Rather, Cronon narrates how he came to terms with the postmodern challenge to history, especially in light of environmental history. In other words, Cronon seeks to answer the question “If our choice of narratives reflects only our power to impose our preferred version of reality on a past that cannot resist us, then what is left of history?”

Historians, according to Cronon, must be concerned ultimately with meaning-making. And narrative, Cronon argues, is how humans create meaning, regardless of whether narrative is fundamental to the way we humans organize our experiences (says Heidigger and Carr) or whether narrative is the cultural mode in which humans are taught organize their experience (says White and Mink). Thus, it is the commitment to narrative that makes people care about each other. Narrative gives history its meaning and, more importantly, its “moral center.” This thought is where Cronon ends his narrative.

But as I write this entry, I am not sure how to end it. (Remember, says Cronon nodding to Aristotle: The end is everywhere the chief thing. The moral of a story is defined by its ending.) Should I acknowledge that, in this entry, I’ve written a story, and try to point out some of the aspects of Cronon’s story that I obscured in my own? Should I acknowledge that I’m writing this entry well after we discussed Cronon in class, and point out the places where this entry story has benefited from it? Or, should I wonder why history needs a “moral center” at all? “Good questions all, [but ending] points for many a story …”? Thank you Professor Cronon, but I’d rather not.