Abstract:
In this paper the current methodological cul-de-sac in historiography is
examined. Fundamental questions about the methodology, myths and
assumptions underlying the writing of history are put forward by linking
this discipline to the dynamics inherent in Cultural studies. The author
argues in favour of a 'poetics of memory' by pointing out that scientific
objectivity, truth and ideology are dependent on the belief, or sensemaking
fiction of the subject/researcher. He shows that historical memory
constitutes what could be called, in the words of Ricoer, an "identity of
culture". In a postmodern mode of thinking, heteroglossia is a way of rethinking
history.
