TÉNYEK ÉS TOPOSZOK A TÖRTÉNELEMÍRÁS NARRATIVISTA ELMÉLETEIBEN
Facts and topics in narrativist theories of history

Author(s): Hanna Orsolya Vincze
Subject(s): Anthropology, Social Sciences
Published by: Scientia Kiadó
Keywords: topics;narrativist theories of history;thopos;historiography
Summary/Abstract: I will speak about how objectivity and the concept of narrative become important in reflexions of the problem of reality vs. fiction. How the opposition of real vs. factual is reframed with the attention redirected to the nature of narrative? And how does the value of historical knowledge change? The narrative as a forming power of the text is an important part of historiography from the beginnings. But in the last few years’ reflexions on the nature of narrative do not only treat narrative as a rhetorical, but also as a cognitive tool, and this is the point that could be of interest not only for historians, but also for other human and social scientists.Hayden White speaks about four dominant traits of Western reflections upon the role of narratives in historiography. I try to introduce these drawing on White’s „The Question of Narrative in Contemporary Historical Theory“. My conclusion is, that if the identity and actions of individuals and communities are formed by narratives organized around certain thoposes, than the understanding of these topics might help us to understand other types of social phenomena as well.

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