HAYDEN WHITE and the QUESTION of HISTORICAL NARRATIVE

Year 2018, Volume: 7 Issue: 2, 632 - 661, 20.10.2018

Selim Tezcan

https://doi.org/10.17497/tuhed.465558

Cited By: 1

Abstract

This article aims to
survey Hayden White’s thoughts on the nature and uses of historical narrative.
White has been the first historian to draw upon the linguistic turn to
problematize historical narrative, emphasizing that it is not only an empty
form used to communicate the results of research and analysis, but something
that contributes its own content as well. The study is divided into four
sections. In the first section, it dwells on White’s comparative analysis of
different forms of historiography extending from the annals to a chronicle and
thence to a fully emplotted narrative. In the next section, it focuses on
White’s revelation of other fictive components of historical narrative,
including the conceptual and figurative framework underlying it. In the third
section, the study discusses White’s comments on the implications of this
fictive aspect of historical narrative for such issues as the links of history
with past reality, the nature of the knowledge it produces, and its
similarities with and differences from literary fiction. In the fourth section,
it examines White’s criticisms against traditional historical narrative. In
particular, it focuses on his observation that narrativizing historical events
leads to the aestheticization and domestication of past reality by providing it
with a false coherence, integrity and completeness, and therefore proves
inadequate and morally objectionable when faced with modernist events like the
Holocaust. In the epilogue, the study suggests some other topics which,
although not discussed by White himself, could be subjected to his line of analysis
with fruitful results.

Keywords

Hayden White, History, Historiography, Linguistic Turn

HAYDEN WHITE ve TARİH ANLATISI SORUNU

Abstract

Bu makale, Hayden
White’ın tarih anlatısı konusunda Metahistory kitabı ve yarım yüzyılı aşan
kariyeri boyunca yayınladığı makalelerde dile getirdiği düşünce ve gözlemleri
ele almaktadır. White, “dilsel dönüş”ten hareketle anlatının salt tarihçinin
bulgularını aktarmakta kullandığı bir araç olmakla kalmayıp beraberinde kendi
içeriğini de getirdiğini ortaya koyan, böylece onu sorunsallaştıran ilk tarihçi
olmuştur. Mevcut çalışma, onun tarih anlatısı ve sorunları hakkındaki
irdelemelerini dört bölümde incelemektedir. İlk bölümde, White’ın başı sonu
bellisiz bir takvimden vakayinameye ve oradan olay örgüsüne sahip tam bir tarih
anlatısına uzanan değişik tarihyazımı türlerini nasıl karşılaştırdığını
inceleyeceğiz. İkinci bölümde, White’ın tarih anlatısının olay örgüsünün
ötesine geçen kurgusal yanlarına, yani temelindeki kavramsal mecazi çerçeveye,
argüman kipine ve bunların ideolojik imalarına nasıl ışık tuttuğunu göreceğiz.
Bunu izleyen bölümde, kurgunun tarih anlatısının harcındaki bu önemli yerini
kabul etmenin; tarihin gerçeklikle ilişkisi, sağladığı bilgilerin doğası ve
kurgu edebiyatla benzerlik ve farkları gibi önemli konular bakımından doğurduğu
sonuçlar hakkında White’ın gözlemlerini ele alacağız. Dördüncü bölümde ise
White’ın geleneksel haliyle tarih anlatısına yönelik eleştirileri üzerinde
duracağız. Tarihsel olayları anlatılaştırmanın, gerçekliğe sahici olmayan bir
tutarlılık, bütünlük ve ahenk katarak onu estetize etme, “ehlileştirme”
sonucunu getirdiği ve bu bakımdan özellikle modern çağın Dünya Savaşları ve
Yahudi Soykırımı gibi dehşet verici, anlamlandırılması güç olayları karşısında
hem yetersiz hem de ahlaken sakıncalı kaldığı konusunda White’ın tespitlerine
ve buna karşı sunduğu çözüme eğileceğiz. Sonsöz kısmında ise White’ın bizzat
ele almadığı, ancak yaklaşımının verimli bir şekilde uygulanabileceği diğer bazı
konulara işaret edeceğiz.     

Keywords

Hayden White, Tarih, Tarihyazımı, Anlatı, Dilsel Dönüş

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