This article discusses the problem of historical representation, with emphasis on the role played by the subject's imagination in the construction of the historical object and the historical text. Taking as starting point the concept of representation-effect, one sustains that the role of imagination shall neither be discarded or overestimated, as it is commonly proposed. One argues that the reconsideration of the role of imagination allows one to rethink the relation between historical text and its reader, the reader being considered as an active agent in the reading process.
historical representation; imagination; writing of history.