An overview of the debate over history as fiction.

1. HISTORY AND FICTION: PART II By M Esterman, 2009

3. THE LAYERS OF HISTORIOGRAPHY – SOME POSTMODERN THOUGHTS The past is gone, we cannot experience the past again. Sources are all created by humans, therefore retain biases, interpretations and thoughts on events. Historians are human & have “baggage” that they do or don’t realise creeps into their writing. No objectivity. Taking a position skews history. There is one past, but is there one truth about the past? There are no rules about the past, no overarching laws, no consistent story

4. HAYDEN WHITE – HISTORIES ARE FICTION “ ...histories are ‘verbal fictions, the contents of which are as much invented as found’...” Partick Finney quoting Hayden White, “Hayden White and the Tragedy of International History”. White writes, "plot is not a structural component of fictional or mythical stories alone; it is crucial to the historical representations of events as well" (Metahistory, 1973, p. 51). The historian is responsible for the idea that people and events are interrelated.

7. RESPONSES

9. SOME OTHER HISTORICAL THINKERS...