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On the writing of history

One can only grasp that which is peculiar to the writing of history through a comparison to a discourse that, since the times of ancient Greece, is its 'neighbor': literary discourse. One cannot understand the narratives of Herodotus and Thucydides except in the context of Homer's epic, and yet they are part of distinct discursive fields because the axes that inform them are also distinct. This kind of understanding was and is made difficult by the theoretical need surrounding the texts, and the modern conception of history perpetuated the same epistemological shortcoming detected in ancient times. The article featured here proves that if the old distinction between res facta and res ficta is not accompanied by epistemological questionings, it does not allow for a sufficient understanding of its approximations and differences. History and literature are discourses that distinct from one another, but this is not due to the fact that one speaks the truth and the other is fictitious. Both are affected by the lack of theoretical constructions that follows the study of these discourses in the West.

History; Epistemology; Literature


Pós-Graduação em História, Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais Av. Antônio Carlos, 6627 , Pampulha, Cidade Universitária, Caixa Postal 253 - CEP 31270-901, Tel./Fax: (55 31) 3409-5045, Belo Horizonte - MG, Brasil - Belo Horizonte - MG - Brazil
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