Al was ons ook daar, ons weet dis nie waar nie" - metodologie en geskiedskrywing in postmodernistiese perspektief

Abstract

In this paper the current methodological cul-de-sac in historiography is examined. Fundamental questions about the methodology, myths and assumptions underlying the writing of history are put forward by linking this discipline to the dynamics inherent in Cultural studies. The author argues in favour of a 'poetics of memory' by pointing out that scientific objectivity, truth and ideology are dependent on the belief, or sensemaking fiction of the subject/researcher. He shows that historical memory constitutes what could be called, in the words of Ricoer, an "identity of culture". In a postmodern mode of thinking, heteroglossia is a way of rethinking history.