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The humanities deal with human beliefs, norms, language, and actions, and with their history; but they also study the products of these actions which consist of art, literature, film, music, communication, architecture, design, crafts, and other cultural expressions. The transformation of the humanities from Geisteswissenschaften to rigorous scientific research into culture and the history of human beings is still under way. There is a huge amount of inertia built into this process, traditions have to be overcome, and changing the idealistic ideology underlying much of the humanities takes time. As might be expected, we have seen a counteraction to structuralism, and its view of objectivity, and to the possible naturalization of the humanities, in the form of constructivism, poststructuralism, deconstructivism, and postmodern criticism in general.

DOI: 10.1057/9780230355484_9

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