| Popis: |
This chapter provides a self-conscious reflection on the plethora of national traditions, which are being constantly renewed, not only in North America and Britain but also across the European continent as well as India and Latin America. The chapter attempts to grasp the diversity of uses of counterfactual reasoning and their extensions or applications from the soberest to the most fantastic. It covers a phase of deciphering or decoding that focuses on methodological issues that come to terms with the specific problems they pose and their pertinence for historical study. The chapter mainly addresses historiographical questions, methodological issues, the problem of sources, and the writing of history. It reviews cases that may serve as a reminder that laughter, play, the superficial, and the absurd can and undoubtedly should have a place in the production of history and its teaching. |
