Why Remember the Historical Past
The past decades have witnessed the revival of radical skepticism in regard to our capacity to understand something of the "reality" of the historical past. This skepticism has found a most effective form of expression in comparative analogies that are drawn between historical works and works of fiction. Through examination of the variety of ways in which imagination is employed in historical narrative, this study presents critical analysis of the contemporary claims of historical skepticism. However biased and incomplete even the most impartial attempt to recover the vestiges of the past may be, this study advances the argument that its significance is hardly limited to the status of a fictive invention. Beyond a preoccupation with facts, historical interpretation is essentially concerned with the coherence of symbolic structures beyond the horizon of the present which not only serves to illuminate what preceded current times but, in so doing, enables us to identify what is timely in the present and to place its fluctuating horizons into perspective.