Metahistory

Gabrielle Durepos

Chapter 107 in Elgar Encyclopedia of Historical Organisation Studies, 2026, pp 379-383 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Metahistory is both a book authored by Hayden White (1973) as well as a theory of the narrative theories of history. Foundational to metahistory is that history is not a science but a literary device. White's (1973) Metahistory distinguishes between primitive (raw, unprocessed historic traces) and non-primitive (narratives created by historians) elements. To create historical narratives, historians must decide (a) how to explain or argument (one must select from four paradigm choices, formism, organicism, mechanism and contextualism), (b) how to emplot (one must select from among four types: romance, satire, comedy and tragedy), and (c) on their ideological orientation (one picks from four possibilities: anarchism, radicalism, conservatism, and liberalism). Basic to all narratives are tropes, which function to relate narrative elements with one another and give meaning to the text. For White, all histories are textual reconstructions.

Keywords: Postmodern history; Emplotment; Pluralism; Textualism; Relativism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035332922
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