Где се налазимо и куда идемо?
Where are we and where are we heading to?

Miroslav Jovanović on Serbian historiography of the late 20th and early 21st centuries

Summary/Abstract: Professor Miroslav Jovanović was aware that the results of Serbian historiography have very limited impact on the world’s leading historiographies, but also that there is a wide gap between Serbian historiography and general orientations in the development of world historiography. Serbian historiography is in crisis and requires a fundamental rethinking. It is closed in “an ivory tower” of traditional positivism, it slaves to the description and it is consequently lagging behind in the methodological and theoretical development. Jovanović pointed out to the works with the notable scientific effort, whose authors unjustifiably interweave certain political beliefs and comments in their professional texts. He also commented on the works that can be regarded as scientific neither by scientific, professional, nor by the standards of scientific ethics. Serbian historiography is also largely characterized by fetishism of documents and lack of synthetic thought. One of the causes of the crisis in Serbian historiography rests on the fact that historians show extreme indifference towards theory of history, the development of theoretical thought and the theoretical and methodological development as well as the results of the other social sciences. And last but not the least, our historiography lacks serious scientific critic. Jovanović concluded that the Serbian historiography is still at the level of “accumulation” of historical knowledge and fails to climb a step higher, to a place which considers spread of historical learning.

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