Preliminary communication
HISTORY AS LITERATURE
Dario Saftich
; Universita di Trieste (Italia)
Abstract
This essay, written for the purposes of the course “ Methodological problems of the literary history” at the postgraduate doctoral study of literature at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb, deals with difficulties regarding the determination of the truth about history: that is to say, the difficulties closely related to the relationship between history and literature. It is a matter of the ancient indirect link: history presents the course of events and literature the course of possible events: literature tends to express the universal and history the exceptional. If Aristotle’s concept identified literature with story (mimesis) and historiography with discourse (diegesis), within the framework of postmodern way of thinking historiography assumes the role of the story.
In this essay, the author focused on contemporary theories about the relationship between history and literature. There is a lot of talk about public life today and that history should be left to historians in order to be properly valorised and historical truth achieved. However, according to contemporary scientific knowledge it is practically impossible because at its core history is narration: selection and personal interpretation of historical facts are unavoidable. It still doesn’t mean that we can give up historical research: history is indispensable in order to have a review of history and make possible for the most significant “truths” that may not be predicted to come up to the surface.
Keywords
history; literature; history of literature; narration; scientific community; national literature; discourse; reception
Hrčak ID:
25804
URI
Publication date:
30.6.2008.
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