1. Literature Sources

2. Areas of focus Approaches to the interpretation of texts
Using novels as historical souces
Learning from novels in the writing of History
Fiction and History

3. Historical approaches to the interpretation of texts
The text as authority
The text as historically located
The text as a free-floating signifier

4. Four methods of textual interpretation
Nominative
Authorial
Discursive
Contextual (intertextuality)

5. Sigmund Freud, The Question of Lay Analysis (1926)
Another characteristic of early infantile sexuality is that the female sexual organ proper as yet plays no part in it: the child has not yet discoverd it. Stress falls entirely on the male organ, all the child’s interest is directed towards the question of whether it is present or not. We know less about the sexual life of little girls than of boys. But we need not feel ashamed of this distinction; after all, the sexual life of adult women is a ‘dark continent’ for psychology.

6. Questions on the readings:
What can the historian learn from Tolstoy?
Does he give an accurate portrayal of the historian’s task on p. 975?
How does he challenge / criticise traditional history?

7. What might Queneau’s work offer to historians?
How does Harline adopt narrative techniques from the novelists for his history?

8. What has Boureau learned from the novelists?
Does paragraph one provide a description of real history?
How does Schmitt learn from novelists?