"The Historical Text as Literary Artifact" by Hayden White - Chapter Summary

White, Hayden. "The Historical Text as Literary Artifact." Narrative Dynamics: Essays on Time, Plot, Closure, and Frames. Ed. Brian Richardson. Columbus: Ohio State UP, 2002. 191-210. Print.

White explores the inherent problem of objectivity in historical accounts. Fiction and history have been treated as distinct genres; White argues that historical accounts are narratives and ought to be analyzed as one does fiction rather than science. The writing down of historical events is not regulated by a universally agreed upon set of criteria like science and thus must be subject to interpretation. Historical accounts are essentially stories pieced together from facts and chronologies, and some are highlighted as more important than others. Furthermore, they are emotionally colored by the preferences and culture of the historian. For example, a historical situation is not inherently tragic or comic. Its painting as such may even be necessary for a culture, especially if describing occurrences remote from or significant to that culture. History accounts are the writing down of events which the historian did not experience firsthand and thus necessarily evoked inference. The historian also necessarily incorporates theme and literary devices in the account as well as causality between events which is not inherent in the events described. The use of history as a ruler against which realism in fiction is measured is erroneous.

If we look at historical accounts as subjective, then paradoxically the more accounts we have of an event the harder it is to figure out the truth. Science is constantly questioned whereas history is not, much like literary classics are not, which makes history more like literature in that sense. To make an account make sense the author may abstract it. He may endow events with meanings, draw parallels, uses symbols. To learn about events as they really transpired we must analyze accounts thereof for literary devices utilized by the historian. White makes a distinction between two elements of historical accounts; first, the pure chronicle containing information on time and place; and second the sentimental significance of the chronology.

Sometimes writers of history have motives like instruction, or satire. It has all the characteristics of a story and thus we must sift through it to pick out the truth. Finally, White deplores the state of history studies today and accuses the attitude toward history as objective and scientific and calls to study history in connection with its inherently literary basis.

Hayden White