ABSTRACT
One of the main features of microhistory is the “normal exception”. This is based on the essential premise that microhistorians place their emphasis on small units and how people conducted their lives within them. By reducing the scale of observation, microhistorians argue that they are more likely to reveal the complicated function of individual relationships within each and every social setting, and they stress its difference from larger norm. The significance of the microhistorical approach lies precisely in the fact: an opportunity arises to explore aspects of human life which can be hard to grasp by other methods. The guiding principle demonstrates how egodocuments, in all their diversity, can prove useful in research in a range of historical fields; how they can bring out perspectives on subjects like emotional experience to which the scholarly world has paid little attention, due to the focus on other sources.
