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Current Approaches to Medieval Historiography
Author(s) -
Lake Justin
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
history compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.121
H-Index - 1
ISSN - 1478-0542
DOI - 10.1111/hic3.12222
Subject(s) - historiography , narrative , politics , meaning (existential) , middle ages , history , focus (optics) , variety (cybernetics) , literature , function (biology) , narrative history , aesthetics , epistemology , art , political science , computer science , ancient history , law , archaeology , philosophy , artificial intelligence , physics , optics , evolutionary biology , biology
In recent decades a variety of approaches have been adopted to wring as much meaning as possible out of medieval chronicles and narrative histories. Moving past the use of these texts merely as source material to reconstruct the history of the Middle Ages, scholars have begun to focus to an increasing extent on topics such as authorial intention, social and political function, audience, and textual transmission. This essay charts the development of new approaches to medieval historiography, focusing on: 1) the analysis of fictional elements in history; 2) the relationship between politics and history; and 3) the return to manuscripts as primary sites of historical communication.