Historical narrative as performative structuration

Fil: La Greca, María Inés. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Fil: La Greca, María Inés. Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero; Argentina. Through an analysis of key insights from two central figures of philosophy of history, Louis Mink and Hayden White, this article tries to answer the following questions: firstly, why can narrative structure be thought as a cognitive instrument (Mink) for the historian?; secondly, why is narrative structure best approached as a product of a figurative operation of emplotment (White)?; and finally, why is historical narration’s cognitive-imaginary double nature – the production of interpretations of past events by endowing them with the meaning of plot conventions – best comprehended as a performative structuration? This last question sums up my interest in presenting a third way of thinking about historiography’s supposed hybridity elaborated from my particular re-working of Mink’s and White’s reflections with an important difference: I will not pursue the traditional line of thought of history’s scientific-literary hybridity. Instead, I will argue that we can approach historical narratives as cognitive and imaginary linguistic performances.