Hayden White The Content of the Form } Narrative Discourse and aace Hngviciqne } Historical Representation1, The Value of Narrativity in the Representation of Reality “Torase the question ofthe nature of naraive iso invite relecion on the very nature of culture and, possibly, een on che nature of| Jnumaniy ull. So natra sche impulse ro arste, so inevitable the foorn of masse for any report on the way things relly happened, that oarrtty could appear problematical only i a clue in which, its absent, ain some domsins of contemporary Wester inte Jecturl and arctic clue, programmatically fused. Considered as panglobal facts of cucu, narrative and narration ar less problems han simply data, As the lt (and proudly mised) Roland Barthes emrked,naraie “is smply thee ike fe Wal. incrnaionaly teanshintorcal ranscolura™ Fat fom being a problem, chen, nar tative might well be considered 4 soluion to a problem of general human concern, nnly che problem of how to ransate knowing nt feling the problem of fashioning human experience inco oor “ssimiable ro sructuces of meaning that are generally human eather than culture specie, We may not beable full 0 comprehend specie ‘thought patterns of another cure, but we have eae les il {uly understanding » sory comiog from another culture, howevee tote that culture may appear to 8s. As Barthes sayy narrate i ‘ansatale without Fndamental damage," ia way that aye poem for a pllosopheal discourse is not, ‘This suggests that fr from being one code among many chat culture may tlie for endoming experience with meaning, aarratve fa meucode, a human universal on the bass of which tanseulte| inessiger about the nature of 4 shared ality can be transite, “Arsing 2s Barthes says, between our experience of the word and ourTHE CONTENT OF THE FORM tions to deserve that experience in Language, araie “easly fobsttes meaning for the seaghorvard copy of the eens 1 une And wool fol cat the absense of nara capacy rn afl of atrae indicts an absens inl oF meaning Sl. ut wha kindof meaning i absent or refed? The fortunes of areve nthe story of storie weing eu some igh ko thirqueston Hisorans donot hve to epor the turks sor the tel wold i Staie forts. They may chose ote, onnaratey ‘Sen annarratve modes representation, such os he eatin, he Snstomy, or the epitome. Tegueile, Buel, Huizinga, and rave to meron oly the mos notable maser of modern is: toriogapy, reed marae iv cen of dir hatorogepical ‘works, pablo te sasampsion da the meaning ofthe events ui which hey wished i deal id not end sl wo representation in HU aah iho wibed o el say ee te ae oe rather they di nt tls sory wih wel-mare! begining, wile, Teles hey dd no nporapanite poms a them the frm that we normaly nate with torpeling. While they eranynarated hi account of thereat tha they peeited, or though hey pred, o ex wihin or behind the endence ey ad ‘said they dl noe nartvize tha aly, di nor impose upon ithe torn of sory. And thor eample permits us 10 stngush termen a hstorkal ducourse that arate and_» dacouse hat, saravizs, betwcen a dacouse at Ope ATOpS a pespectve at {ok out on the wold and reported a discourse tht kgs 0 mate the wort pea ff and speak il 83 0". “Thien thet narrate shouldbe coniered less form of scrnation than apt mance of speaking abou ere, whee el Srinagar, ben sean labored within 3 dicon ofthe ‘Sitonship deweendicoune and acre that as adsen it the drake of Structural si ie asocied withthe work of Jakabson, Temenie, Cee, Tada and Barthes Here nate epaded ss rmanner of peng charac, 8 Gente expreses by & Eran nrber of exon and wesiie conditions that he more “oper? form af dcorse docs not inpote upon the sede Accond- ing to Gene, Benes showed hat, certain grammatical forms ike the pronoun “(and ts implicit ‘elerene “thou” the peonomial “nator (ean demons ‘ve pronouns) the adverbial indiatrs ike “her,” "bow,™ “yesterday” oda” Nomoto,” et) and, east in French, certain ver tees the present, the preset pede, and *e ure, Gnd themselves ited ro escourse, while nazracive inthe series ene ir dstngushed bythe exclusive wse ofthe thitd perv and of auch forms a the preset and the paper “This disinction berween discourse and marae i, ofcourse, based solely ona analy ofthe grammatical fates of two mode of ds ‘our in which the “object” of dhe one and the “subjectivity” of| the other are definable primarily by “linguistic order of ereri." The ‘Subjectivgy” of the discourse is gien by the presence, explicic oF impli, of an “ego” who can be defiaed “ony asthe person who Inintains che discourse.” By contrast, the “object of narrative ‘fed by the absence af all eerence tothe narrator.” Inthe parr ‘Evning discon, then, we can sy, with Benveniste, tha truly Tee feo longer a narrator” The eens are chronologically seceded as ‘hey appear on the horizon ofthe sary. Noone speaks. The events seem fo tl themselves." ‘Whats involved nthe production of dacoure in which “tents seem tell themashes,” expecially when iis « mater of events that fr explicly iene as real rather than imaginary, sin the ease af | Istria representations” In discourse having odo with manifestly imaginary exes, which ae the “conten's” of tinal discourses, the ‘question poses few problems, For why should not imaginary events be ‘Sprcuented se "speaking themselves"? Why should not, inthe domain fof the imaginary, even the ones themselves speakelke Memnons ‘column when touched by the rays of the sun? But ral events should tot speak, should not tl thembeles. Real events should simply be: {hey can potty wel serve a the re TEAS OTE acount Be spoken shoct, bu they should nor pase asthe subjecs ofa nara. ‘The latenees ofthe ivension of historical course ia uma history and the diculty of sseining icin times of eulural breakdown (3 in ‘hecarly Middle Age) suggest the scicialy of the oxi tht red ‘fens could "speak themes or be represented as eling thir ov Story.” Sacha fetion would hsve posed to problems belore the distinc tion berween real and snaginary events was imposed upon the story tnler,stryeing bosoms a poem only sr to Seles of re “ipmee themselves before the sory a possible components of "ores and soryeling is compelled w exolise under te ijuneton to keep the two orders unmixed in discourse, What we wish 0 call Iiythie narrative is nder no obligation to keep the ewo orders of‘vents, cal and imaginary, distin from ane anothet, Narrative be “comes a problem only hen we wish to give to real events the form of Sry. Its becuse veal events do not ole shemselves a8 stores that thei aareativiation is 20 if ‘Whac is imolved, then, in that Gnding ofthe “tee story.” that isconery of the “eal Story” within o¢ behind the evens tha come to tus inthe chaotic form of "hisoricalrecowds"? What wish s enacted, ‘what desi is pea, bythe fantasy that real event ae propel _epresented when they can be shown to display the formal eabereny ‘ofa story? Inthe engona ofthis with, this dese, we catch » gimp fof the cull function of naruviing discouse ia general, 20 Jncimation of che psychological impalse behind the apparently un versal need nor only to narate but f0 give fo exens an aspect of| sarativy “Historiography is an especially good ground on which to consider ‘ the nature of nzration a nareaty bees iis here that ot desire for dhe imaginary, the possible, must contest with the imperatives of| the eal, he actual We view naveavon and artariviy asthe nse tens vith which the conicting aims of theimacinary and Fea) ‘Henolun bal greeted oo tenance ears pea fend bo teapot gener ag sd both the appeal of na rounds Tor lasing TF pute eal events ae represented in a nonnareive Tor, Wa ind of veal isi tha offers slo is concived to offer isl, 10 peeeption inthis fora? What woulda nonnarratve representation of| Fstoncal reality look like? In answering this question, we do not neces arrive a solution to the problem ofthe nature of mars tive, but we do begin 10 catch a glimpse ofthe basis forthe appeal of| ‘arratvity as 3 form forthe rprescttation of evens coastrud 10 be real eather an imaginary Fortunately, we have examples aplenty of ceprsemtations of bit: torical reality that are nonnaretive inform. Inded, the daxa ofthe ‘moder hstriogeaphical establishment hart ha ee aT Thr Kinds of historial epretenttion the annals, the chronicle, snd We + Witonpraper=theimparlec "hrialiy” of two of WHEN iso © Geren thet treo sint fall narra of he veto hich they tea! Needles oy, naraivity alone ds not permit the dis. ist erent or of past eal events, to count asa proper history ince - see ction ofthe the Kids in ade fa an sroue of tent een of ¢ on ‘rough tha i display all ofthe lets of narrativy nition he ete = Mount must manifest a proper conn for the udu handling of a ee wy psec and emt nor the homolog oner of the onl o cate ‘oocurrence ofthe events of which treats ay a aslin not co be eas tgessed in the classfcaion of any gten even as either a cause or an ‘fect. Bue by common consent, it is not enough that an hisorcal ‘ecoune dea in eal ater than merely imaginary, vets and ic isnot cuough tha the account represents events in its order of discourse according to the chronological sequence in which they orginally fccurrede The events must be not only registered within the chrono” logiel Framework of thee original occurence but narrated as wel, thar i to sy, revealed as possessing a scuctore, an onder of meaning, that chey do not possess as mere sequence. [Needless os, als, the annals fre lacks completly his nar tive component, since i consists only of s lst of evens ordered in chronological sequence. The chronicle, by contast, often seems (9 Avish co ell story aspires to aretvity, but ep fis to achiee | More specially te chronicle usually is marked by failure 0 achieve narrative closure. Ie does noe 0 mich concde as smply terminate Testes out tells story but Breaks off medias vs a the chronicles own preset; t leaves things uneesolved, or rather, i leaves them uaresoled in a story ws ‘While annals represent historical elty aif eal events did not play te foto ory, the chronicler pes easel eee FAUST as hat howe oe «Nata mit tevin his reporting of events, however juius he as ben in is assessment of erdence,howeerpunciios he hasbeen ais dating ‘fe gota bacon ens something les han + proper story Sth ba fale to iets the form ofa story. Where here tara, Cros sats her io try? And Pact Gay, wei ' purpetive del opposed to the ravi of Croce, pts jst fs sary "Hioricl narton sithoue anal si, sone Sali withoutnceaton incomplete ™ Gays formulation ells the Kenan is of te demand for aration in hii ores tn, fori sugges paraphrase Kat, that tone ares ‘without analysis are eps, wile historical analyses widhow arratve be Mind Thue we nay sky Whar Kind of does arate ge foto the nature of rel wens? Whi Kind of Bindness with expen to “Fay ge same doe That follow I tet the annals and chronicle forms oF historical representation, not asthe imperfect histories they are cosventionally conceived tobe, but rather as parccular products of posible conc tions of hlsorcl ey, conceptions that are aernaties(,taher‘han fae anccpations of ehe fly realized historical dacourse that the modera hsory form is supposed to embod. This procedure wil thuow light on te problems of boc historiography and naraion alike fnd wl sluminate what I coneeve tobe che purely conventions ns use af she celationsip between them. Wha wil be revealed, hak, itha che very distinction between real and imaginary eveots tht is basicto moder diecossons-of bath fitory and hoon presipposees wth “the rea insolar as i-can be showa to poses the character of aU ‘when we moderns ook at an example ofa medical annals, we annat but be struck by the apparent naieté ofthe annalt and we ae lo dlned to ascibe this sitet the annals apparen cfurl i bile, or unwlingness to transform the set\of events onlered sersically 262 fle oF annual markers int the elements of a lneat/ horizontal process. [nother words, we are ikly to be put of by the snnalars apparent Faure tase thc hioriel eens dispose them Selves tothe perapient eye ay stores wang fo be eal, wating to be arated, But surely a genuinely Nstonica mies Would requie that ‘we ask not how or why che annals failed to write 2 “naeaie™ but "eather wha kind of notion of reality ed him to represent nthe annals form what, after al, he took 0 be real evens. If we could answer this ‘gestion, we might beable to understand why, in our own Se snd aural condition, we cold coaceive of naracviy ise a problem. ‘Volume 2 of the Monumente Germaniae Histories, nthe Ser tores seis, contains che text of the Anal of Saint Gall, a ist of ‘ems thar occurred in Gaul daring the eighth ninth, and tenth e&n- fies of our era! Although this texts “referensa™ and contains 4 representation of temporaiy'®—Dacrot and Todorov’ defini Y Mines cin 207 ETS —icpouetes none ofthe haces ‘hat we normally attribute to a sory: no cenal subject, no vel marked beginning, middle, and end, no perpeteia, and no identifiable hareatve vote It what ae, fo us, the theoretically os ineresing Segments of the tet, theres 20 suggestion of any necessary connec toa beoween ane event and another Thus, for the period 709-38, we have the following entre: 709, Hard wine, Dake Gotfied died, 710. Hard yeae and deficient in crops. m1. 712. Flood everywhere 7. 714. Pippin, mayor of the palace, did 75. 716.717 718. Chavles devastated the Saxon with great destruction, ns. 720. Charles fought against the Saxons 721. Theo drove che Sarsens oot of Agutsing 722. Great cops. 73. maa, 1725. Saracen came forthe Best tne. 76. m7, ns, m9, 730, TAL Blessed Bede, the presbyes, died. 752. Charles fought agains the Saracens a Pierson Saturday 33, 734, “Tis ti iene cas wei culture hovering onthe brink of dissluciony «society of radial scarcity a world of human groupe threatened by death, devastation, Food, aed famine. Al of the events fare extreme, and the implicit eriterion fox selecting them for remer> trance thir inal nate, Basi need food, secur fom exeral enemies, polisGaTand military leadership—and the wea of ther not ting provided ae the subjecs of concer; but the connection besween basic needs and the condition for their posible satisfaction i nt ex plily commented on. Why "Chases fought agaist the Saxons” remains as unexplained as why one year yielded “reat crops" and nother produced flood everywhere.” Socal event ae apparently 36 incomprehensible as narra evens. They seem to have he sane order ‘of importance or unimportance, They seem merely to have ooeured, ‘and their importance sems tobe indstinguishabe fom the fac hat, they were recorded. In fac, seems that thee importance consis in sothing other than ther having been recorded, “And by whom they were recorded we have no idea; nor do we have any idea of when they were rconded. The entry for 725~—"Saacenecame forthe ise sme" suggests tha his event atleast ss resorded alter the Saracens had come a second time and se up what we might ‘consider to be a genuine naraivist expectation; bur te coming ofthe Samcens and theie epusion is not the subjee of this account. Caress fight “against che Saracens at Poitiers om Satucdsy”™ i > coded, but the outcome of the battle isnot. And that "Satundsy” is disturbing, because the momth and day of che battle are not given "There aze po many loose ends ag plo in he offing and this fut ‘eating, if not disturbing, tothe modern readers Rory expectations a8 well a his dese fr specifi information, ‘We nove further that this accoune is not really inaugurated, It simply begins withthe “sil (sit tle?) Anni dont, which stands atthe head of two columns, one of dies, the eer of events. Vis, a least, this de Laks the fle of dates inthe Ifhand column with the file of events the righthand column in a promise of signBcaion that we might be inclined eo tae for mythical were i not for the fact that Aoi domi refers us both ro coxinological story given in Scrip= ture and toa ealendieal convention that historians inde West il se tomatk he units of thr hioris, We should not oo quickly ele the meaning of che texto dhe hic Ramework it invokes by designating the “year a being “of che Lon,” for these “years” have a reguleiy tha the Chaiscian mythos, with fy otaical onering ofthe cents it compres (Creation, Fall Incarnation, Resareton, Second Coming), doesnot possess. The egularty ofthe lends signals the “align” ofthe account, is intncon to dealin geal rather than lmaginary evens. The calendar locates events, notin the time of eer nity, not karovic cme, but ia chonologial time, im tme a humanly experienced. This tne has no high points o¢ low point t is, we might say parsacial and endless. Te hss na gaps, The lit of tines 6 fll evn ifthe ist of events i no. Finally the annals do nor conclude; they simpy terminate. The las entries ae he flowing 44s, 1046, 1087. 1048, 1049, 1050. 1051, 1052, 1053, 1054. 108. 1056, The Emperor Henry ded and his son Henry succeded to che rule 1057. 1058, 1059, 1060, 1061. 1062. 1063. 1068 1065, 1066, 1067. 1068. 1089. 1070. 1071, 1072, ‘The continuation of thelist of years a the ead of the acoune does, ‘co be sue, sggest a continuation ofthe series ad infnieum, or rahe tat the Second Coming, But there kno story eaaelasion. How could there be sce there no fara ubicersbout which «sory could be role? [Nonetheless there must be aston, since there i surely a ploe—it ty los ne ace laos hhh ec 2 wi ean Bg nel pars ofan ucqaed whole, Hoe, kowsr Tie eng aT TS SEES orbs Ha sal ean fot the just pars of humankind) ontaned inte Bible, bu th a of date ofthe ers ie ne |cichand fil ofthe tex wich confers cece an fae the cents by teitering them unde he yeas in which hey oso. To fuck anther waychelit of dates canbe seen at the spied of whch {herent gen the ght hand colt ae the sigue, The mea {ng ofthe evs ht reguraon inti Kod of Ui. Ts wy, hme he mai a i fairy she he Inoden sho ds whenconfoned ih wba appear be ga {Buaninsiey and lad of sve! comesions een he ren ESSERE Go the mouenrciobr een and cons inan one of ern the anal harbrhn he eens he ee ‘Which nthe more wedinie”expeaton? eal tht we ae deny with nether onc nr infil i corse. ay even be a mike cl ious al bo as ‘meting dare about The text sumone wpm” ‘pea othe damian of eemory rater than in that of dea of iy ad unfolds under the gn of "he rea” ae than that of ‘he magne” tn fay sex mien eionl anon he ee of rather prensa dese tocol onl hos evens Shove which th could be ie dou so tes ocrene snd terelnattolmerpalns fasion speclre oundi arto aban fnyument about bow te ernst ely comeced wo oe another ‘Modem aoments hn aie on cheat sha te nas scone the Bate of Foe of 753 bt aed ont the Be of “ours which ecient se year and which, ee schoolboy noe neo the el oa aces of worl sory Ba ren ifthe sons bad known of Tur wha pl ore of mesg ould hae rete sm o second SPT POMP Rom oor EES lof the subsequent hiory of Westen Euope tbat we can presume co ikea in ems of tice world bina snare, ana ee ‘then tat lgniiince i et WOH Rito than ply Wester at‘European representing a tendency of modern historians to rank evens jn the record hierarchically fom within perspective thats culture Speci, not universal at al. Testis need or impulse rank events with respect 0 thet sig nificance for the elute or group tha is writing is own story that makes a nacative representation of real eents possible, I is surely rch more “onesie” simpy t0 record events a they come t0| ‘ovie, And atthe mini level on which the annals unfold ht gets put ince the account of meh greater theoretical importance for the Underesnding of the nature of recive than what ges left out. Bat this does ase the question ofthe faction in this text of he recording fof thse ears in which "nothing happened.” Every narrate, however Semingiy “Yall” is constcted on the bass of set of event shat Jahr have been nchided but were left oxt ths as tue oFumagnany anrves ae i of relic Ones Rad this consideration penis to ask what kind of notion of realty authorizes construction of a na Fatve account of reality in abich continu an dscontnut the articulation ofthe dscoute. Tee gant that tht RCORTRE UoTs under a sign of a dese for the reals ap we must do in order to justify the incusion ofthe annals form among the types of historical representation, we must conclude thavicis a prosoc fan intageof realty according to which the social System, which alone could prove the diacrical markers for ranking the importance of eee only rinaly preset co the concious pes of the writer, or rather, present as a factor inthe composition ‘of the discourse only by vite ofits abunce. Everywhere i isthe fowees of disorder, natural and human, the forces of violence and tdseruction that occupy the forefront of azention, The acoune deals Se qualities rather than agent, Siguring frch a world in which dings happen to people tater than one in which people do things Iris the Iardness ofthe winter of 709, the hardness ofthe year 710 and the Aefiieney ofthe crops of tha yea, the ooding ofthe waters in 712 Sth imminent pesece of death that recur with x fequency and regularity lacing in the representaion of acts of human agency. Realty for this observer wears she face of adjectives that override the Capacity ofthe noun chey maui to ress their determinacy. Charles oes manage to devastate the Saxons, to Aight against them, and “Theudo een manages to drive he Saracens out of Aquitsine Bu these tions appear to belong to che same ont of existence as the natural ‘ents which bring either "reae” crop or “efcen harvests, and are, Ss seemingly incomprehensible "The absence of a principle for asaning imporsance or sii ace t en gga SBOE the aps he of eens in the righchand file, for example in che year 73 in which, i seem, “spohing happened.” The overabundance ofthe waters noted fr the year zis preceded and followed by years which aso “nothing hap pened.” Which puts one in mind of Hegel remark that pciods of man happines and scary ae Blank pages in history. Bu the pre aan ee a pein por ‘ive, by wey of cottast the ext t whieh nacaive serine forthe ‘et of having filled in al the gaps, of having put an image of contin yr coherency, and meaning in plae ofthe fantasies of empsiness seed, and frueated desir that inabit our nighsmares about the de ‘truce power o ine In fac the annals’ account ells up «world in which need is everywhere presenti which scarcity isthe el of ex ihahce SaFin which al ofthe powble ages of stsfcdon sre Theting or absent or ex under imminent teat of death, “The notion of posible graticatin is homer, implicitly present in the iss of dates dat make up te lefchand cola. The alles of| this lise test tothe fullaes of time, or 2 least 10 the floes of the “years ofthe Lord” There is no sizes of the yeas: thy descend regular frm their origin, the ea of he Incarnation, and rl relent Tey onto thei penta end te Lar Judgzene. What i lacking in the bt of evens to give it «slr regularity and flless sa notion ffs svial center by which co locate them with respect to one anotbee nd to charge them with echial or moral sigpieane.Ieis che absence ‘fany constousness of a socal enter that prohbis the annals from ranking th evens he tetra clement of 9 historical fied of occu Fence And icsthe absence of ach center hat precludes or underets fy impulie he might have had to workup his discourse ino the frm Sf a naeratve. Without such a ceoter, Charles's campaigns agains the Saxons remain simply Bight, the invasion ofthe Saracens simply a ‘omings and he fact dat the Bale of Posers was fought on Satur ‘Sayan portant asthe fact hat che Bate was een fought atl. All ths suggests to me hat Hegel was sghe when he opined that «gene inely htorel account hsd wo display nos only certain form, namely the naraie, but alo acetin content, namely, a poliicososal ode. In hs ioroduction to his Lecter othe Philosophy of History Hegel wrote tn our language the ser History ues the objective with the sujet ide, and denotes que a mach the historia rerun