Publisher's Synopsis
History, as both literary critics and historians agree, is not a given, but forms itself in specific patterns of thought and the linguistic patterns which realize these modes of thinking. The present volume deveotes itself to history as a written construst by examining the broad spectrum of literary treatments of history from the late enlightenment to the early 21st century and discussing their theoretical and historiographic premisses.;The introduction discusses the principal methods and leading aspects of the contemporary debate at the intersection of "literature" and "history". The main body of work then presents a series of chronologically arranged case studies which illuminate both the interplay of historical view and textual procedures and the social function of different forms and genres of historical representation.;The volume thus provides a compendium which provides systematic access to a research field which has been rapidly expanding over the last few years in the 20th century, and examines its benefits for both literary studies and the theory of history; as such, it also serves as an introduction to a complex field of research.
