Abstract:In recent years several studies of historical synthesis have revealed that humblest narrative is always more than a chronological series of events.' They have pointed to a variety of ways in which his...In recent years several studies of historical synthesis have revealed that humblest narrative is always more than a chronological series of events.' They have pointed to a variety of ways in which historians have given their chronological accounts of the past, their basic narratives, a meaning as a whole. A narrative may illustrate a familiar kind of plot -a romance, tragedy, comedy, or satire, for instance. It may illustrate a moral truth, as parables do. A narrative may manifest a trend of some kind, or be colligated under a set of determinative values or goals. A narrative may account for an important outcome, which gives a certain value to what went before. Finally, a narrative may illustrate a theory of historical change, a theory, say, of economic or political processes. In all these ways an historical narrative may have a meaning as a whole over and above the meaning of its parts, its constitutive sentences. Narratives of fiction can be given meaning in these ways too. When the question is raised as to whether historical narratives as a whole can be true, then, people have asked, quite appropriately, whether these various modes of historical synthesis could reflect historical reality or not. Generally it has been thought that they could not. Hayden White, for example, in an essay entitled The Value of Narrativity in the Representation of Reality concludes with these rhetorical questions:Read More
Publication Year: 1987
Publication Date: 1987-12-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 16
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