Anecdote And History

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4949129
AutoresLionel Gossman (Princeton University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2003
Volumen42
Número2
Páginas143-168
Fecha de publicación2003-05-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaHistory and Theory (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0018-2656 • E-ISSN: 1468-2303
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1468-2303.00237
OpenAlexW2036679799
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas18
Referencias citadas1

Although the term "anecdote" entered the modern European languages fairly recently and remains to this day ill-defined, the short, freestanding accounts of particular events, true or invented, that are usually referred to as anecdotes have been around from time immemorial. They have also always stood in a close relation to the longer, more elaborate narratives of history, sometimes in a supportive role, as examples and illustrations, sometimes in a challenging role, as the repressed of history -"la petite histoire." Historians' relation to them, in turn, varied from appreciative to dismissive in accordance with their own objectives in writing history. It appears that highly structured anecdotes of the kind that are remembered and find their way into anecdote collections depend on and tend to confirm established views of history, the world, and human nature. In contrast, loosely structured anecdotes akin to the modern fait divers have usually worked to undermine established views and stimulate new ones, either by presenting material known to few and excluded from officially authorized histories, or by reporting "odd" occurrences for which the established views of history, the world, and human nature do not easily account

Aesthetics · Anecdote · Art · Epistemology · Genealogy · Literature · Narrative · Relation (database) · Computer Science · Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy · History · Literature, Film, and Journalism Analysis · Philosophy · Rhetoric and Communication Studies