Who is the 'author' of historical works

• Authors: Radomski A.
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

Up to our times, the history of historiography used to confine itself only to the description of historians and their works. That classic model predominates in many countries till now. At present, however, historians prefer, ever more, to point to different factors which influence the shape of historiographical works. Yet, many people still believe that the creator of historical works is a historian himself. The motives, intentions and political opinions of historians are researched, since, as it is presumed, they are the reasons why they write such or such works instead of different ones. The author of the paper, however, thinks that the historian is not the only 'creator' of his work. Nowadays it is believed that the works of historians should be conceived as a class of writings originating from different texts, different authors and contexts. Umberto Eco's work can be cited as an example of the species. Historical work is therefore an intertextual product of culture. As a result, the author and his ideas should be considered as a cultural phenomenon. In postmodern culture the last word belongs to the reader and it is the reader who creates from the pre-texts (historiographical works) a new text.

Keywords

EN

HISTORIAN'S ROLE; HISTORICAL WRITING; INTERTEXTUALITY; POSTMODERN HISTORIOGRAPHY

Discipline

• HISTORY: HISTORY

• Publisher: The Kraków Branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Historyka studia metodologiczne
• Year: 2005
• Volume: 35
• Pages: 53-67
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Radomski A.

• A. Radomski, Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Sklodowskiej w Lublinie, pl. M. Curie-Sklodowskiej 5, 20-031 Lublin, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

06PLAAAA01343011