The challenge of globalizing historical theory requires that theorization be grounded in material from all parts of the world. Southeast Asia is a world region that is somewhat underrepresented in the theorization of history. The distinctive historical traditions of Southeast Asia present an opportunity to bring new insights to existing theories of history. In this article, I offer a theoretical approach to historical temporality that is grounded in close readings of texts from this region by focusing on how these texts construe temporality through choices of narrative organization. I develop a toolkit for analyzing the temporalities in historical texts from equatorial Southeast Asia (the region covering present‐day Indonesia and Malaysia), which includes a precise analytical vocabulary to fully account for their diversity. This approach leads to a theoretical stance that supersedes the conceptual dichotomies of linear/cyclical time and empty/full time, in favor of a more pluralistic understanding of temporalities. The grounded theory presented in this article is not only better suited to working with Southeast Asian materials, but it can also be placed in useful dialogue with existing theories, such as the narrativist approach of Hayden White and recent theorizations of the medieval historiography of Western Europe.

中文翻译：

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东南亚史学中的时间

全球化历史理论的挑战要求理论化必须以世界各地的材料为基础。东南亚是一个在历史理论上代表性不足的世界地区。东南亚独特的历史传统为将新的见识带入现有历史理论提供了机会。在本文中，我提供了一种历史时空性的理论方法，其基础是仔细阅读该地区的文本，重点关注这些文本如何通过叙事组织的选择来建构时空性。我开发了一个工具包，用于分析来自赤道东南亚（涵盖当前印度尼西亚和马来西亚的地区）的历史文本中的时态性，其中包括精确的分析词汇，可以充分说明它们的多样性。这种方法导致了一种理论立场，取代了线性/循环时间和空/全时的概念二分法，有利于对时间性的更多理解。本文介绍的扎根理论不仅更适合使用东南亚材料，而且还可以与现有理论进行有益的对话，例如海登·怀特的叙事主义者方法和西欧中世纪史学的最新理论。