The article discusses the role of history in the Western culture and delineates the conditions of possibility for its discursive effects. De Certeau sees history as a discourse constituted by a radical gesture of separating the present from the past and of generating its Other(s) for representation or silent ignorance. This gesture can only be possible in alliance with its contemporary sovereign political power whose role is to validate history and to designate its place in society. In return history serves the state and aims to represent and justify it. Such a relationship between history and power determines the processes of historiography, which De Certeau understands in terms of work and production. In this respect the discourse of history reveals two complimentary yet opposing senses of reality in its scientific methodology: on the one hand, reality is the effect of history, on the other, it constitutes the very premise of history. Nonetheless, in order to pass for the discourse of reality, history needs to function in culture like myth , that is like self-reflexive praxis sustaining social identity in opposition to its Other(s).
Download files
Citation rules
No. 20/21 (2010)
Published: 2010-01-01
10.31261/errgo
English
Język Polski