Exemplary or Singular? The Anecdote in Historical Narrative.
This article talks about anecdotes in historical narratives. Here anecdotes portrayed a clear image of social practices, showed the back stage of official historiography and the relationship of cause to effect. It is believed that telling anecdotes functioned as a way of tightening the community and...
| Published in: | Substance: A Review of Theory & Literary Criticism Vol. 38; no. 1; pp. 16 - 31 |
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| Format: | Literary Criticism |
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Johns Hopkins University Press
2009
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| Summary: | This article talks about anecdotes in historical narratives. Here anecdotes portrayed a clear image of social practices, showed the back stage of official historiography and the relationship of cause to effect. It is believed that telling anecdotes functioned as a way of tightening the community and drawing its boundaries through the exchange of rumors and news. During the time of Voltaire, an ambivalence vis-à-vis the anecdote also governed historical memoirs, a genre concerned with particulars rather than with a broad overview of events. |
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