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This article focuses on the history of meta-historical reflection in Belgium and makes a comparison with the Netherlands. Meta-historical reflection is defined broadly as including the traditions of so-called substantive philosophy of history and critical philosophy of history as well as more general reflections on the social relevance of history. The article starts with a bibliometric analysis which is used as a first indicator for the changing success of meta historical reflection in the Low Countries. A more qualitatively-oriented analysis of the theme follows. It is stressed that a relatively large interest in meta-history existed in Belgium starting from the early 1960s until the second half of the 1970s. This interest was shared by historians as well as philosophers (of science). The third part of the article raises and (partly) answers the question of why this interest in meta-historical reflection declined again during the 1980s. It also asks why meta-historical reflection, in contrast to the situation in the Netherlands, has until today hardly been professionalized and institutionalized in Belgium.

Na temelju provedene analize pripovijesti iz povijesno-političkoga područja djelovanja proroka Elizeja o odnosu povijesne stvarnosti i teološke nadgradnje na vidjelo su došle spoznaje da je proročko djelovanje duboko utkano u društveno-političku stvarnost te da na temelju određenih povijesnih činjenica oblikuje poruku i da te činjenice interpretira u okviru određene poruke. Zbog toga povijesna stvarnost u tim pripovijestima dobiva drukčije svjetlo iz razloga što teološka nadgradnja povijesnih događaja vodi u metapovijesnu stvarnost. U konkretnom slučaju to je svijet čudesa, odnosno svijet čudesnoga koji nastaje Božjim djelovanjem ispod kore svakidašnje povijesne stvarnosti. Povijesne se činjenice ne ignoriraju nego transcendiraju i tako se relativiziraju ostavljajući mogućnost novoga gledanja na stvarnost iz druge perspektive., The analysis of the narrations from the historical-political field of the activity of the prophet Elisha, and its relation to the historical reality and the subsequent theological developments, suggests that the prophetic activity is deeply rooted in the socio-political reality, which based on certain historical facts molds the message and frames the interpretation of the facts. Therefore, the historical reality in these narrations gains a different light, since the theological contemplation of historic events leads to the meta-historical reality. In this case, this is the world of miracle, i.e. a world of miraculous which occurs by God’s activity beneath the surface of the everyday historical reality. The historical facts are not ignored, but transcended, and thus relativized, opening the possibility of a new perspective on the reality.

L’histoire cherche à combiner des descriptions particulières dans des cadres généraux dans le but d’expliquer des séquences d’événements. Dans cet esprit, l’histoire adopte une approche transdisciplinaire qui couvre une variété de champs allant de la biologie à la géologie, en passant par l’anthropologie et l’histoire humaine. Je cherche à caractériser ce cadre métahistorique général comme exemple d’une dynamique complexe, évolutionniste et généalogique. Cela suppose quelques travaux particuliers sur les modes de transmission d’information, les niveaux des fonctions de système, l’identification multiple, les variables causales et sur les moyens de démêler les événements contingents des processus réguliers qui filtrent ces événements., History seeks to combine particular descriptions within general frameworks in order to explain event sequences. In this respect, history is a transdisciplinary approach that encompasses a range of fields, from biology and geology, through to anthropology and human history. I seek to characterize this general metahistorical framework as an instance of a complex, evolutionary and genealogical dynamic. This involves a specification of the modes of information transmission, the levels of system function, the identification of multiple, causal variables, and a means of disentangling contingent events from regular processes through which these events are filtered.

This paper seeks to highlight to the Spanish public the work of Rosenstock-Huessy, which is still quite unknown in our country. In particular we analyze his theory of language, and especially his philosophy of history, and their affinities and differences with philosophers like Heidegger, Rosenzweig, Löwith or Spengler. Este artículo pretende dar a conocer al público español la obra de Rosenstock-Huessy, que aún es bastante desconocida en nuestro país. En concreto analizamos su teoría del lenguaje, y sobre todo su filosofía de la historia, así como sus afinidades y diferencias con filósofos como Heidegger, Rosenzweig, Löwith o Spengler

Bu çalışma, Foucault, White ve Hutcheon gibi kuramcılar tarafından yapılandırılan postmodern tarih yazım kuramı çerçevesinde, postmodern tarihin geçmişe ilişkin bilgilerimizi nasıl değiştirdiğini ve bu değişimin postmodern İngiliz romanında nasıl yansıtıldığını göstermektedir. Çalışma, geçmişi doğru olarak anlatmanın güçlüğü ile yakından ilgilenen Julian Barnes'ın kurgusal eserlerine odaklanmaktadır. Postmodern dönemde, sadece tarihsel izlerin güvenilirliği değil, doğrusal ve güvenilir tarihsel anlatı da sorgulanmaktadır. Barnes'ın kurgusu geçmiş ile ilgili değildir, ama geçmişin ne derece doğrulukla anlatılabileceği ve algılanabileceğinin yollarını tanımlayan Foucault'nun arkeolojisine ve Hayden White'ın meta-tarihine benzemektedir. Bu tez, Barnes romanlarını biçimsel ve tematik açılardan çözümleyerek, karmaşık güç ilişkileri içindeki söylemler aracılığıyla tarihin postmodern yöntemlerle yeniden oluşturulması olgusunu tartışmayı amaçlamaktadır.Anahtar Kelimeler: Julian Barnes, postmodernizm, tarih yazımı, meta-tarih, tarihsel üstkurmaca Framed by a historiography of postmodernism as it has been configured by such theoreticians as Foucault, White and Hutcheon, this thesis will show how postmodern history alters established knowledge about the past and how this alteration is reflected in postmodern English fiction. The study will focus on Julian Barnes's fiction, which is understood as engaging with the difficulty of narrating the past accurately. In the postmodern period, not only is the authenticity of the historical trace put into question, but also is the established notion of linear, reliable historical narration. Barnes's fiction is not about the past, but resembles an archaeology – to use Foucault's term – and a metahistory – to use Hayden White's term – which together define those ways in which the past can be perceived and with what degree of accuracy it can be narrated. By means of both formal and thematical analyses of Barnes's fiction, the present thesis aims to discuss the postmodern remaking of history through competitive discourses embedded in complicated power relations.Key Words: Julian Barnes, postmodernism, historiography, metahistory, historiographic metafiction 154

The objective of this dissertation is to explore the theme of memory and its impact on how we tend to re-create and perceive history, as reflected in the book A History of the World in 10 and ½ Chapters. The goal is to interpret each chapter and make a plausible inference as to what the author intended to communicate concerning the postmodernist view of history. The theoretical groundwork of the thesis draws primarily on Hayden White's Metahistory; Paul Ricœur's La mémoire, l'histoire, l'oubli and Temps et Récit. Tome I. Other sources include interviews with Julian Barnes, Conversations with Julian Barnes by Vanessa Guignery; an essay by Frank Kermode, Stowaway Woodworm and of course the novel itself. Key words: theme of memory, history, post-modernism, Julian Barnes, Grand Narrative/metanarrative, metahistory, historical imagination

In the context of postmodernism, history writing has become a crucial issue. Called "epistemological turn" by historians and "metahistorical fiction" by writers, such a tendency is the proof of a "metahistorical awareness" which arises nowadays in Western societies as a whole, inviting to consider history as a palimpsest of subjective and conflicting interpretations. Affected by recent memory conflicts, Spain is primarily concerned. This study wishes to identify the modalities and stakes of such metahistorical tendency while wondering about the place of contemporary Spanish drama within this phenomenon. After retracing the evolution of both notions of "metahistory" and "metahistorical fiction", this dissertation opens on a first chapter sketching out a history of Western metahistory, extended to the historiographic, artistic and societal fields (choosing to limit the latter to the contemporary period). If the metahistorical phenomenon is not new, metahistorical awareness which provides it with an original strength and coherence seems to crystallize over the last part of the 20th century. Spain has its own specificities ‒ especially due to the legacy of the Spanish Civil War and Franco's dictatorship. This chapter ends on a theoretical part offering analytic tools for metahistorical fiction and a typology (metafictional metahistorical fiction, historiographic metahistorical fiction), and also considers some particularities of the dramatic genre. The second chapter is the study of around ten Spanish dramas written over the past thirty years: El retablo de Eldorado, Naufragios de Álvar Núñez, Lope de Aguirre, traidor and El sudario de tiza by J. Sanchis Sinisterra, ¡¡¡Tierraaaa... a... laaaa... vistaaa...!!! by M. Martínez Mediero, Yo tengo un tío en América by A. Boadella, Retrato de gran almirante con perros by L. Riaza, Yo, maldita india... and El arquitecto y el relojero by J. López Mozo, El jardín quemado and La tortuga de Darwin by J. Mayorga, and Homenaje a los Malditos by E. Calonge. If it uses the metahistorical device through various dramaturgies, this corpus presents, however, a real unity: reminding of present-day historiographic and societal concerns in history writing, it becomes an original artistic manifestation of contemporary metahistorical awareness, exploring more closely the Spanish particularities. These texts also seem to reflect the progressive affirmation of metahistorical fiction which gradually parts from historical fiction and metafiction. As Clio is brought back to the humans' stage, deconstructed and demystified, these playwrights do an "act of memory" and offer spaces of expression to traumatic memories. Contemporary metahistorical fiction, though definitely postmodern, is not nihilist: it dismantles historical discourses in order to better understand them; it deconstructs them in order to offer other evocations of the past., Dans le contexte de la postmodernité, la question de l'écriture de l'histoire est devenue essentielle. " Tournant épistémologique " chez les historiens, " fiction métahistorique " chez les écrivains : cela semble témoigner d'une " conscience métahistorique " qui touche aujourd'hui les sociétés occidentales dans leur ensemble, invitant à penser l'histoire comme un palimpseste d'interprétations subjectives et contradictoires. L'Espagne, traversée par de récents conflits mémoriels, n'est pas en reste. Tout en cherchant à identifier les modalités et les enjeux de cette tendance métahistorique, cette thèse s'interroge sur la place du théâtre espagnol contemporain à l'intérieur de ce phénomène. Après avoir retracé les évolutions des notions " métahistoire " et " fiction métahistorique ", ce travail s'ouvre sur un premier chapitre proposant une ébauche de l'histoire de la métahistoire en Occident, étendue à l'historiographie, à l'art et au champ sociétal - limitée pour ce dernier à l'époque contemporaine. Si le phénomène métahistorique est loin d'être nouveau, la conscience métahistorique qui lui donne une force et une cohérence inédites semble se cristalliser dans le dernier tiers du XXe siècle. L'Espagne possède ses spécificités, liées notamment à l'héritage de la guerre civile et du franquisme. Ce chapitre s'achève sur un volet théorique où sont précisés des outils d'analyse pour la fiction métahistorique et une typologie (fiction métahistorique métafictionnelle ; fiction métahistorique historiographique), tout en envisageant quelques particularités du genre dramatique. L'examen, dans un second chapitre, d'une dizaine de pièces espagnoles écrites ces trente dernières années ‒ El retablo de Eldorado, Naufragios de Álvar Núñez, Lope de Aguirre, traidor et El sudario de tiza de J. Sanchis Sinisterra, ¡¡¡Tierraaaa... a... laaaa... vistaaa...!!! de M. Martínez Mediero, Yo tengo un tío en América d'A. Boadella, Retrato de gran almirante con perros de L. Riaza, Yo, maldita india... et El arquitecto y el relojero de J. López Mozo, El jardín quemado et La tortuga de Darwin de J. Mayorga, et Homenaje a los Malditos d'E. Calonge ‒ montre que le dispositif métahistorique se manifeste dans des dramaturgies variées. Ce corpus présente néanmoins une réelle unité : en écho à la préoccupation historiographique et sociétale actuelle pour l'écriture de l'histoire, il s'offre comme une manifestation artistique originale de la conscience métahistorique contemporaine, dans les particularités de l'aire espagnole. Ces textes semblent refléter par ailleurs l'affirmation progressive de la fiction métahistorique qui s'affranchit peu à peu de la fiction historique et de la métafiction. À l'heure où Clio est ramenée sur la scène des hommes, déconstruite et démythifiée, ces dramaturges n'en font pas moins acte de mémoire et offrent des espaces d'expression aux mémoires en souffrance. Résolument postmoderne, la fiction métahistorique contemporaine ne verse pas dans le nihilisme : elle démantèle les discours historiques pour mieux les comprendre ; elle les déconstruit pour proposer d'autres évocations du passé.

The paper will explore some of the ways in which personal experience turns into life writing, the process in which a record of a life lived becomes a story, such as the textualization of the “texture” of life, or from body to book ; the emplotment of the incidences of life into a life narrative (White) ; the heteroglossia of life writing (Bakhtin) ; the finding of voice for one’s self (Eakin) ; and the role of memory in life writing (Olney). As specific backdrop to the discussion, the two well-known examples of Canadian literature, Susanna Moodie’s Roughing It in the Bush, and Margaret Atwood’s reinscription, The Journals of Susanna Moodie, will be used to exemplify some of the main arguments raised in the paper.

Reply to Referee's Report.

This study examines Okudzhava’s depiction of the process of documentalization of the past as a defining feature of the novel Puteshestvie diletantov, giving reason to consider it a form of metahistory, or an artistic statement on the subject of historical knowledge. The image of the document plays a central role in the novel Puteshestvie diletantov. Through it, Okudzhava depicts the process of knowing and (re)creating the past, as well as the process of its deformation, supplementation and modification. In the form of a document, the past finds existence in time and space, finds its author and addressee, and becomes submerged in a constantly changing context. Okudzhava does not contest the truth of the past, but rather problematizes it, immersing the reader in its real element – the narrative one, permeated by the creative will of the individual. Within this element, two juxtaposed narrative streams stand out clearly: the fictional and the documentary, each shaping the picture of the past in different ways. By thematicizing the issue of documents as evidence, Okudzhava at the same time thematicizes the influence of narrativity on the process of our recreation of past events, as well as on the course of these same events. The act of compiling a document and the act of narration appear in the novel as the driving force of the action and are treated by the author of Puteshestvie diletantov as a fully fledged manifestation of human will in History. In this way, the metafictionality of the novel (its thematicization and problematization of various narrative forms) becomes the key to its metahistoricality (the thematicization and problematization of knowledge of the past, the composition of History), inasmuch as History itself is represented here in the form of a narrative stream.

While the official Denmark has declined taking part in a reconciliation process with Greenland, its former colony, a large literary audience has embraced the novelist Kim Leine, who puts colonial history and Danish-Greenlandic power relations on the agenda. Originally published in 2012, his novel Profeterne i Evighedsfjorden (English title: The Prophets of Eternal Fjord) has received huge attention and several prestigious literary awards, but it has also been the target of criticism for painting a distorted picture of Denmark’s conduct in Greenland. The article examines how the novel relates to the established narratives about Danish colonialism and how it contributes to the ongoing negotiations. The novel’s use of narrative modes is analysed in light of the assumption that certain modes are associated with certain plots, where a particular framing of the past defines a space of possibility for the way we shape the future. It is argued that the novel draws on the anticolonial dream of ‘total revolution’ and supports the struggle of the colonised to break free from the colonial power and establish their own nation state. Its key narrative mode, however, is not the preferred mode in anticolonialist literature, heroic romance; instead it is tragedy. The novel portrays the profound transformation of society and subjectivity that is brought about by modernity with Christianity and colonialism as its vehicle. As a consequence of this transformation, resistance cannot be posited from a point outside modernity but arises from within modernity itself. Thus the protagonists of the novel are not only portrayed as equals but as actors in the same universe, regardless of the highly asymmetrical power relations between Danes and Greenlanders. In this sense, the book participates in efforts to reframe the Danish-Greenlandic relationship based on the new language of equality and partnership found in the Act on Greenland Self-Government.