Kaliban and Ariel

Abstract

One of the basic questions of contemporary theory of historiography in the past decade has undoubtedly been the question of representational forms of past reality. Historians who once considered historical narration only as a form of historical representation, now see it also as a constitutional principle . They have come to the conclusion that a relevant representational (read, narrative) expression can be reached only in casses when we draw into our narrative discussion also the listener himself, his own relevance system and narrative environment. Only in this way it is possible to solve not only the problems of representation but also the difficulties of mediation. Historical narration as a form of historical representation should therefore no longer be treated merely as temporal structure of text and argumentation but as a basic form of representing the past reality, proceeding form a basic human existential need.