Narrative and Experience: Interdisciplinary methodologies between history and narratology

Abstract

This introduction discusses key elements in the connections between narrative and experience from the viewpoints of narratology and historical studies. The linguistic turn and the several narrative turns have brought narratology and historiography close together, and a key concept in this development has been experience. Postclassical narratology emphasizes experientiality as the core of narrative, and new trends in historiography foreground the salience of experience in social and cultural history. We consider how historical narratives can be located and interpreted, assess cooperation between narratology and history, and suggest possible lines for further collaboration. Whereas the linguistic turn in historical scholarship has produced extensive theoretical and philosophical discussions on the premises of writing history, we aim to promote a methodological application of recent narratological approaches to history that will help to answer concrete empirical questions. Simultaneously, historical research turns out to be a useful partner for narratological analysis, providing a necessary understanding of time- and situation-bound contexts for interpreting particular narratives and even more, showing that narratological schemes and models of explanations are not universal, but historically constituted.