Literary Narrative and History, Some Points of Discussion: The Meta-historical Conception of Hayden White against the Criticism of Chris Lorenz

Abstract

This article revisits the relation between history and literature in the debate between metahistorical Narrativism as presented by Hayden White and the criticisms of Chris Lorenz to its proposal. To attain this goal, the article firstly presents the outlines of White’s narrative proposal, in which assumptions of the literature and theory of tropes are used to think a new way of accessing historical knowledge. Next, it presents several objections presented by Lorenz regarding problems that, in his view, are overlooked by Narrativism in its approach to the relation between history and literary aesthetic theory. Finally, after examining both positions, the article seeks to test possible answers to the objections raised by Lorenz, not as an attempt to settle the debate on the subject, but, instead, to maintain the validity of several disputed points from other perspectives. The article ends by presenting some conclusions on the theme.