Dealing with the past – a challenge and perennial burden of a historian Cover Image

Vyrovnávanie sa s minulosťou - výzva a večné bremeno historika
Dealing with the past – a challenge and perennial burden of a historian

Author(s): Juraj Šuch
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences
Published by: Ústav politických vied Slovenskej akadémie vied
Keywords: rewriting history; historical thought; image of the past; ideology; historical narrative

Summary/Abstract: The author of the article connects the process of alignment with the problem of rewriting history. From the point of view of representatives of the realist view (G. Elton, M. Mandelbaum) professional work of historians will result in the creation of one picture of the past. The representatives of the constructionist view of history (H. White, F. Ankersmit ) emphasize literal and construction features of writing narrative history which result in permanently rewriting history and the creation of plurality historical narratives. The author points out the relevance of the theoretical and ideological dimension of historical narration, which is mentioned in Jerzy Topolski`s understanding of the structure of historical narrative. He assumes that the legitimacy of a historian`s image of the past depends on his/her success in forming historical knowledge with update and value saturated (ideological) perspective.

  • Issue Year: VIII/2015
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 68-73
  • Page Count: 6
  • Language: Slovak