The Predominance of the Romancesque Form in the Historiographical Traditions: Report of an Experimental Study on the Linguistic Form

The present article is a report on the problem, research method, basic concepts, and results of a study on the predominant linguistic form of historiographical texts. This formalist study examines the undisputable diversity of historiographical texts under three basic and, at least seemingly, irreducible genres: chronicle, historical research, and historical novel. By assessing the linguistic form in thirteen randomly selected historical writings based on the proposed formalist criteria, certain noteworthy results can be obtained as to whether the historical language, in its broadest and most diverse sense, has a romancesque or novelesque form. The romance and the novel are recognized as two fundamental linguistic forms in fiction and other literary genres. Bearing this, as well as settling on this point that a romancesque work (such as the tales of “One Thousand and One Nights” or chivalric romance) is not concerned with human reality, identifying any trace of romancesque work in historiographical traditions should be considered a precarious endeavor. Through negative and critical considerations of the three main genres mentioned above, the present report seeks to evoke an image - albeit a vague one - of a transformation beyond the existing situation in historiography.