facts > stories
- Created by: Gracelynne
- Created on: 29-05-24 13:43
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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
- unrepresentable in language - dissociating from the facts is morally offensive
- a noble/ tragic genre e.g. Holocaust literature - H. White 378
- sometimes facts have to take precendent over the story - Hayden White 90
- 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?
- 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
- 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
- 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
- but some histories cannot be told in stories, only facts
- 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
- 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
- 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?
- 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
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