ABSTRACT
This chapter is an analysis of the foundations of Hayden White’s theoretical ideas on history and historiography. It discusses the importance of the work of White in contemporary theory of history, starting from the 1960s and his article “The Burden of History” and finishing with his 1990s essays on the modernist event and the need of historiography to develop new methods of writing adopted by literature. The chapter focuses mainly on the subjects of subjectivity and objectivity as they have been analyzed in White’s work, on his investigations on the literary character of historical texts, and shows how these inquiries on the nature of historiography reflected his political concerns. White has been a supporter of an emancipatory historiography, a historiography that would not serve the status quo but support the needs of the majority of the population. His theories on the language and style of the historical narrative constitute, therefore, not just methodological suggestions but essential arguments that could evolve the strength of anti-colonial, anti-fascist, or anti-capitalist narratives, and had as their goal the use of the knowledge of the past as a means of liberation, both for the historians and for the public. The later work of White, in which he developed further his investigations, will unfold in the next chapters.
