facts > stories

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  • history deals not in facts but in stories - discuss this claim with reference to 2 or more historical thinkers
    • but some histories cannot be told in stories, only facts
      • sometimes facts have to take precendent over the story - Hayden White 90
        • a noble/ tragic genre e.g. Holocaust literature - H. White 378
          • unrepresentable in language - dissociating from the facts is morally offensive
            • "the world of Auschwitz lies outside speech as it lies outside reason"  -George Steiner - Hayden White 379
            • "How is the unspeakable spoken about? Certainly we ought to speak about it, but how can we ever do so?" - Alice Eckhardt - Hayden White 380
            • figurative language distracts from the literalness - aestheticism - writer inserting themself into narrative diminishes what it would've been like to have been a real victim
              • Nazis as unrepresentable bcos can only be spoken about literally
    • INTRO? what kind of history are we discussing? - academic vs historical fiction e.g. Bridgerton
      • are fact and story mutually exclusive in history? - is it perhaps better to ask which to focus on rather than a binary - e.g. even Ranke 'father of historical science' recognises its an art too - interpretation of the facts
        • an arbitrary distinguishment made by historians trying to professionalise the discipline in the 19th century?
      • fiction and media a major way people understand history so shouldn't be seen as separate from a discussion on how history should operate - Rosenstone pg2
        • to change the medium is to change the message - Rosenstone 6
        • history for the masses - Walter Scott
      • eurocentric? who are we excluding by taking this approach?!
        • but aDNA and Africanisation?
    • Facts >>
    • RG Collingwood = historian is fundamentally a storyteller - Hayden White 83, historians have a narrative role - Ann Rigney 103
      • historian to make a plausible story from facts - make sense of the fragmented facts - but different versions depending on which story/ plot the historian chooses - Hayden White 85
        • history never objective even if reliance on facts bcos fact selection - Hayden White 90
  • 19th century saw a strive for objectivity and a reliance on the facts
    • historian to be separate from the history - Georg Iggers - 43
    • Bury - can provide material for literature, but cannot be its aim - an association with literature is dangerous - Bury 17
    • Ranke - strives for objectivity - but does acknowledge historical appreciation - turn facts into history - but wants to remove the narrative and for the historian to be detached
      • "wie es eigentlich gewesen" - actually/ essentially - objectivity vs one verifiable truth
      • RG Collingwood = historian is fundamentally a storyteller - Hayden White 83, historians have a narrative role - Ann Rigney 103
        • historian to make a plausible story from facts - make sense of the fragmented facts - but different versions depending on which story/ plot the historian chooses - Hayden White 85
          • history never objective even if reliance on facts bcos fact selection - Hayden White 90
    • Facts >>
    • facts to take precendent over story - Hayden White 376
  • INTRO? what kind of history are we discussing? - academic vs historical fiction e.g. Bridgerton
    • are fact and story mutually exclusive in history? - is it perhaps better to ask which to focus on rather than a binary - e.g. even Ranke 'father of historical science' recognises its an art too - interpretation of the facts
      • an arbitrary distinguishment made by historians trying to professionalise the discipline in the 19th century?
    • fiction and media a major way people understand history so shouldn't be seen as separate from a discussion on how history should operate - Rosenstone pg2
      • to change the medium is to change the message - Rosenstone 6
      • history for the masses - Walter Scott
    • eurocentric? who are we excluding by taking this approach?!
      • but aDNA and Africanisation?

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