Literary Studies, History and Popular Culture – the Spaces of Convergence. Introduction

Abstract

The aim of the article is to juxtapose literary studies, literature and history as neighboring branches of humanistic knowledge. The author compares the methodologies of history and literary studies in the field of narrativity, and, in accordance with Hayden White, comprehends history as a type of fiction, historio-graphia, and literary artifact. In this optics historiography and literary studies are diagnosed as forming a sisterhood relationship. When the opportunity arises it is shown that the idea of postmodern history is no novelty, since up until the decline of the XVIIIth century history and literary studies have not been opposite at all. Actually, the way of thinking about history as an (literary) art has a splendid tradition rooted in antiquity. In the scope of Braudel`s history of the “longue durée” it is the model of history as a (hard) science separated from literary studies as an art and ideographical science that constitutes a methodological aberration. Comparative analysis leads to the conclusion, that both these “scientific” branches developed almost simultaneously (cf. feminism, gender, postcolonialism, posthumanism, animal studies). Moreover literary genres, such as the (post)modern historical novels, alternate histories or historical fantasy, opened the space of convergence between history and the literary, because of mutual fluctuation and the “parasiting” of ideas, topics and poetics. The participation of popular culture makes the history and literary studies more transgressive, widely open for contemporary forms of communication and more hearable. In this scope, the author presents historical game books, facebook`s historical events, transmedia historical stories.