The content of the Form: narrative discourse and historical representation

Resumo

Although the chapters that appear in this book have been previously published separately in different places at different times, they have been revised by the author for their publication as a book and are all related to the problem of historical representation. By putting together essays on Droysen, Foucault, Jameson and Ricoeur, Hayden White hasmanaged to give an encompassing account of a problematic issue that has been one of the major concerns of historical studies as well as of many other areas of the human sciences: that of the importance of narrative representation in the description or explanation of the “object” of study of the human sciences. Although the authors mentioned deal with this subject in different ways, White finds in them common characteristics which confirm the point made by him that historical narratives are, from a semiological perspective, concerned with the production of meanings.