 
                         20060101.00

     History is an amalgam of logic and imagination, of
concept and intuition, of Begriff und Anschauung.  On the one
hand there is dry chronology, on the other historical
fiction.  Even today, historical novels are a favorite
literary genre.  Shakespeare's plays about the kings of
England are memorable as examples of intuitive history, of
poetic interpretation of history, of history as drama.  The
difference between chronology and history is that chronology
requires the reader to contribute the entirety of the
intuitive substance of the chronicled event; history, on the
other hand, purports to supply the reader with at least a
rudimentary outline of the intuitive meaning of its reports.

     One difference between historical fiction and historical
narrative is that the narrative relies on historical
artifacts, e.g. letters, diaries, business records, whereas
fiction simply invents them.  Yet the interpretation of a
letter or a diary or a business record is not unequivocal.
It also requires imagination; and examined closely it
requires, to a greater or lesser extent, invention.  The more
critically one examines it, the less distinct the dividing
line between historical narrative and historical fiction will
appear.


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Copyright 2006, Ernst Jochen Meyer
