Basic historical narratives

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Basic historical narratives are collective narrative patterns . They determine the framework of individual and collective historical thinking . They act as institutionalized and socially proven and regulating basic beliefs within a society .

Concept history

The term “basic narrative” appeared in the history debate in German-speaking countries around the year 2000. Information about the beginnings of the genesis can be found in the development of American analytical philosophy . After the war , she described the narrative logic of historiography and history for the first time, formulated approaches to differentiating the two terms master narrative and basic narrative and temporarily culminated in the conference “Philosophy and History” in 1963. Parallel to this American development also performed Claude Lévi-Strauss made important contributions to concept development in 1964. In his structuralist study he recognizes the difficulty of transferring indigenous South American mythological and therefore very fundamental narrative structures into the narrative structures of Western observers. Based on these two approaches, Hayden White's well-known "Emplotments" (1973) and Jean-François Lyotard's Critique (1979) of the master stories (or also "méta récits") followed. These theoretical developments on the term "basic narrative" became through the beginning of the "memory boom" in western society and the establishment of a scientific public history in the USA. The discussion about the term "basic narrative" as an analysis category was introduced into the German-speaking historical discussion by Susanne Popp (2002) and Marko Demantowsky (2006); in 2012 it was found in Peter Gautschi et al. Follow-up to the pragmatic discussion on conducting history lessons .

Systematics

  • Master narratives (partly translated as master narratives, which, however, based on André Glucksmann's master thinker, could evoke the association of a dominant narrative, which is not meant here.) Are categories which, metaphorically speaking, were made by the 'old white man'. They are explicitly constructed, follow a certain history and can therefore be traced back to one or more authors. Master narratives are the focal points in the collective history that one needs to know as an individual belonging to a particular society. Master's narratives are used for the formation of political history and for value-oriented education . With them, for example, on national holidays whose legitimacy founded.
  • Basic narratives, on the other hand, are the matrix of historical thinking in a society. It is about the everyday , historical framework of thinking, i.e. the implicit theories of historical thinking in a society. In contrast to the master narratives, which come 'from above' and manifest themselves in political festivals, for example, in order to allow the country leadership to create collective thinking, basic narratives tend to come 'from below', they describe how a society as a collective thinks and therefore also which opinions are accepted in a society and which, as 'lateral thinkers', have a rather stony path to acceptance ahead of them.

In addition to the distinction between master narrative and basic narrative, there are other narrative distinctions that were defined by Margret R. Somers (1994).

  • Ontological narrative: This defines the human being in his being, it deals with philosophical questions of being human. With this narrative, people make sense of their life, it broadly defines who we are.
  • Public narrative: These are linked to the cultural and institutional practices of a society. They define the larger networks and apply to all individuals.
  • Metanarratives: These relate to the master narrative in which the human being is embedded as an actor in the story. It makes him think about the master narrative that defines him. In this way, people can reflect at a certain distance on how progress , industrialization and enlightenment, for example, influence our society today.
  • Conceptual narrative: This narrative concerns cultural and social scientists of all kinds and it contains the concepts and explanations on which these very scientists base society.

Demantowsky (2018) argues that one should not compare basic narratives with master narratives, but rather with the conceptual narratives of Somers (1994).

definition

The currently most comprehensive definition of the term is so far available from the perspective of empirical cultural studies research. This approach captures basic narratives as collective narrative patterns. They are anonymous and profound identification structures of opinion and meaning in societies. They form the basic framework of everyday historical thinking and are usually not assigned to any authorship , that is, they are anonymous . Basic narratives usually act as unspoken prerequisites which, in the form of profound structures, determine the individual and collective understanding of history within a society. Basic narratives appear both as institutionalized and socially proven beliefs - for example in museums , archives, curricula, memories, television series, Bollywood films, in parliament as well as in house numbers and also in the university.

A distinction is made between four "analytical aspects" of basic narratives: the aspect of social roles, the social and linguistic norms or rules, the media aspect and finally that of the rituals .

literature

  • Margret R. Somers: "The narrative constitution of identity." In: Theory and Society 23 (1994), pp. 606-649.
  • Alessandra Fasulo / Cristina Zucchermaglio: “Narratives in the workplace. Facts, fictions, and canonicity. " In: Text & Talk 28 (2008), pp. 351–376.
  • Peter Gautschi / Markus Bernhardt / Helmut Mayer: "Good history lessons - principles". In: Michele Barricelli / Martin Lücke (Hrsg.): Handbuch Praxis Geschichteunterricht . Newsreel, Schwalbach / Ts. 2012, pp. 326-348.
  • Marko Demantowsky (Ed.): Public History and school. International perspectives . De Gruyter Oldenbourg, Munich 2018, ISBN 978-3-11-046368-2 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Sidney Hook (ed.): Philosophy and history. A symposium . New York University Press, New York 1963.
  2. ^ Claude Lévi-Strauss: Mythologiques. Volume 1: The Raw and the Cooked . Chicago University Press, Chicago 1983, pp. 1-34 .
  3. ^ Jean François Lyotard: The postmodern knowledge. A report . Passagen-Verlag, Vienna 2015.
  4. ↑ Jay Winter: The Generation of Memory. Reflections on the memory boom in contemporary historical research . In: Workshop history . tape 10 , 2001, p. 5-16 .
  5. ^ Susan Benson, Stephen Brier, and Roy Rosenzweig: Introduction . In: Presenting the Past. Essays on History and the Public . Temple University Press, Philadelphia 1986, pp. XV – XXIV .
  6. ↑ Susanne Popp: A globally oriented historical awareness as a future challenge of history didactics? In: Sowi-Online . tape 2 , no. 1 , 2002, p. 1-13 .
  7. ^ Marko Demantowsky: Austrian school books as sources of historical culture research. The treatment of the revolution of 48 and the Magyar-Habsburg conflict . In: Saskia Handro, Bernd Schönemann (Hrsg.): History-didactic textbook research . Lit, Berlin 2006, p. 149-176 .
  8. ↑ Peter Gautschi, Markus Bernhardt, Ulrich Mayer: Good history lessons - principles . In: Michele Barricelli and Martin Lücke (eds.): Handbuch Praxis Geschichteunterricht . Newsreel, Schwalbach / Ts. 2012, p. 326-348 .
  9. ^ André Glucksmann: The master thinkers . Ullstein, Berlin 1989.
  10. ^ A b c Marko Demantowsky: What is Public History . In: Public History and School. International Perspectives . De Gruyter Oldenbourg, Munich 2018, p. 21-22 .
  11. ^ A b Margret R. Somers: The narrative constitution of identity . In: Theory and Society . tape 23 , 1994, pp. 606-649 .
  12. ^ Marko Demantowsky: What is Public History . In: Public history and school. International perspectives . De Gruyter Oldenbourg, Munich 2018, p. 16-24 .
  13. ^ Marko Demantowsky: What is Public History . In: Public History and school. International perspectives . De Gruyter Oldenbourg, Munich 2018, p. 22-24 .