Wyobraźnia (historyczna) i jej rola w procesie badania przeszłości

• Authors: Woźniak Marek

Title variants

EN

The historical imagination and its role in the study of the past

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The  critic  of  the  fundamental  foundations  of  the  traditional  historiography  was/is particularly influential from the point of view proposed by widely  understood constructivism. It questioned that reality is something external and independent from cognition, and that the truth or falsity of its results depends on the  nature of the world. In light of constructivism knowledge cannot be treated as an  effect of the relation between the subject and object, its shape is not defined  by  the external world and, finally, that the scientific  apparatus does not provide an  adequate image (description) of the world (independent from culture). In this way from the constructivists’ conceptions of history we cannot say that  “the past is real”, at least, “not the past as it is used by historians”. The images  of the past are therefore a construction and are intelligible, not because of their  own nature, but because of the a priori criteria which establish their intelligibility  and which contribute to the knowledge of historians or the society in which they  operate. Historians can be perceived as a part of the whole system, and their  social credibility depends not only on (historical) sources, but on the fact that their  discourse has its roots in cultural, social and linguistic prejudices that shape our  perception of reality (or the past).  Within the framework of these changes the category of (historical) imagination  and its part in possible images of the past formulated by historians arouses special  interest. From this point of view we can see (historical) imagination as a tool  participating in constructing images of the past. Reflection  on historical imagination  in this way can lead to showing in new light not only the cultural prejudices of  historical cognition (historical studies), but above all the reason for the necessity  to reformulate the investigative programs and the forms of representing the past. The problems and questions raised in the article derive perhaps only from  necessity a fundamental change of our relation to imagination. So in everyday life,  the media, art, literature, and also scientific  discourse, imagination – often even in  defiance  of arguments that some time appear in social and scientific   circulation – is identified  as “fiction  and fantasy”, and leads to it being treated  as an alternative for “truth and reality”. Meanwhile, it seems that likewise we do not think about  a given culture that is true or false, so we should not also bring discussion on imagination into problems of its falsity or fictionality  irrespective of whether we  treat imagination as a “child of culture” or inversely, culture as a “child of  imagination”. However, we wish to emphasize at this point, that it is not our intention  to suggest that (historical) imagination is the (essential or crucial) tool of  cognition of past reality, but rather we ask if imagination has such an essential part in  historical knowledge, can we perceive it in the investigative practice of historians.  Therefore, we do not try to force the thesis that the stories composed by historians  are the work of imagination, but rather that representation (re-presence) of the  past is possible with, or even thanks to, (historical) imagination. 

Keywords

PL

poznanie, obraz przeszłości, wyobraźnia, pamięć,; doświadczenie, światopogląd, kultura

• Publisher: Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu
• Journal: Pamięć i Sprawiedliwość
• Year: 2013
• Issue: 2(22)
• Pages: 41-53

Contributors

author

Woźniak Marek

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