Follow my own path: Natalie Zemon Davis și microistoria
“Follow my own path”: Natalie Zemon Davis and Microhistory

Summary/Abstract: Natalie Zemon Davis is widely acclaimed in the academic world and widely known among history readers. Her work has been associated through its historiographical contributions with microhistory, a field that has engaged intense efforts of historiographical evaluation over time, with a rich literature focusing on it. Approaching the genre of microhistory allows Natalie Davis to promote and advocate for “in-depth” historical research, to bring her methods closer to ethnography and anthropology, but at the same time to preserve her identity as a historian. The “historical laboratory” metaphor is significant for understanding the author’s positioning in defining her historical conception. Using the terms “truth”, “probability”, “evidence”, “possibility” as narrative conventions allows Natalie Davis to situate history between science and fiction, between laboratory and invention. In the interview published in 1984, Natalie Davis specifies a number of aspects regarding her historical conception and relationship with anthropology. It argues for the critical use of ideas from anthropology in historical research. Her attraction to historical anthropology was associated with her interest in film. The story of Martin Guerre, as she confessed, sparked her curiosity, to expose it in the form of a film. Therefore, the interaction with the cinematography gave the author not only the ethnographic experience, but also the elaboration of the historiographical narrative.

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