Metahistory: Vicissitudes and Humanistic Capacity of the Concept

Abstract

Is the term metahistory a repetition of the Aristotelian gesture of naming metaphysics? In 2023, half a century passes since the first publication of Hayden White’s famous book Metahistory. The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Europe. However, this classic, fairly well-known work – as well as its criticism – did not give life to the term metahistory, which in the horizon of research terms is enjoyed, for example, by metaphysics. In these considerations, I do not mean sentimental reminding about a term that would be valuable today for the sole reason that it once existed. Rather, it is an attempt to think about the path of enriching (re)thinking of the historical imagination – the latter, I believe, is the key to resisting the contemporary crises and impasses of today’s humanities.