dialectical relativism and idealistic absolutism.
Spencerian view
The Scottish philosopher and evolutionist
Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English philosopher, psychologist, biologist, anthropologist, and sociologist famous for his hypothesis of social Darwinism. Spencer originated the expression "survival of the fittest ...
, who was highly influential in the latter half of the nineteenth century, felt that historical figures were relatively unimportant.
He wrote to a friend, "I ignore utterly the personal element in history, and, indeed, show little respect for history altogether as it is ordinarily conceived."
He wrote, "The births, deaths, and marriages of kings, and other like historic trivialities, are committed to memory, not because of any direct benefits that can possibly result from knowing them: but because society considers them parts of a good education."
In his essay ''What Knowledge Is of Most Worth?'' he wrote:
Inevitability or determinism
Taken to an extreme, one may consider that what Hegel calls the "world spirit" and
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biog ...
calls "those vast impersonal forces" hold us in their grip. What happens is predetermined.
Both Hegel and Marx advocated historical inevitability in contrast to the doctrine of contingency, allowing for alternative outcomes, that was advocated by
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his care ...
,
Michel Foucault
Paul-Michel Foucault (, ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, writer, political activist, and literary critic. Foucault's theories primarily address the relationship between power and knowledge, and how ...
and others.
However, Marx argued against the use of the "historical inevitability" argument when used to explain the destruction of early communes in Russia.
As an orthodox Marxist,
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...
accepted the laws of history that Marx had discovered, including the historical inevitability of capitalism followed by a transition to socialism.
Despite this, Lenin also believed the transition could be effected faster by voluntary action.
In 1936
Karl Popper
Sir Karl Raimund Popper (28 July 1902 – 17 September 1994) was an Austrian-British philosopher, academic and social commentator. One of the 20th century's most influential philosophers of science, Popper is known for his rejection of the c ...
published an influential paper on ''
The Poverty of Historicism
''The Poverty of Historicism'' is a 1944 book by the philosopher Karl Popper (revised in 1957), in which the author argues that the idea of historicism is dangerous and bankrupt.
Publication
''The Poverty of Historicism'' was first written as a ...
'', published as a book in 1957, that attacked the doctrine of historical inevitability.
The historian
Isaiah Berlin
Sir Isaiah Berlin (6 June 1909 – 5 November 1997) was a Russian-British social and political theorist, philosopher, and historian of ideas. Although he became increasingly averse to writing for publication, his improvised lectures and talks ...
, author of ''Historical Inevitability'', also argued forcibly against this view, going as far as to say that some choices are entirely free and cannot be predicted scientifically.
Berlin presented his views in a 1953 lecture at the
London School of Economics, published soon afterwards. When speaking he referred to
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is consider ...
's views, but the published version speaks approvingly of Karl Popper, which caused a stir among academics.
Heroic view
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. A leading writer of the Victorian era, he exerted a profound influence on 19th-century art, literature and philosophy.
Born in Ecclefechan, Dum ...
has espoused the "heroic view" of history, famously saying in his essay on the Norse god
Odin
Odin (; from non, Óðinn, ) is a widely revered god in Germanic paganism. Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about him, associates him with wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, victory, ...
in his book ''On heroes, hero-worship, & the heroic in history'' that "No great man lives in vain. The History of the world is but the Biography of great men ... We do not now call our great men Gods, nor admire ''without'' limit; ah no, ''with'' limit enough! But if we have no great men, or do not admire at all,— that were a still worse case."
Carlyle's historical philosophy was based on the "
Great Man theory", saying, "Universal History, the history of what man has accomplished in the world ...
sat bottom the History of the Great Men who have worked here."
An extreme believer in individuality, he also believed that the masses of people should let themselves be guided by the great leaders of men.
Talking of poets he said,
More recently, in his 1943 book ''The Hero in History'', the
pragmatist scholar
Sidney Hook
Sidney Hook (December 20, 1902 – July 12, 1989) was an American philosopher of pragmatism known for his contributions to the philosophy of history, the philosophy of education, political theory, and ethics. After embracing communism in his yout ...
asserts:
Hook recognizes the relevance of the environment within which the "great man" or "hero" acted, but asserts that this can provide the backdrop but never the plot of the "dramas of human history". and distinguish life and species
Ranking
There have been rankings of the significance of major historical figures. For example,
Cesar A. Hidalgo and colleagues at the
MIT Media Lab
The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fixed academic disciplines, but draws from ...
has calculated the memorability of historical figures using data such as the number of language editions for which there are articles for each person, the pageviews received, and other factors. These lists are available at MIT'
Pantheon project.
Historical truth
It is sometimes hard to discern whether apparently historical figures from the earliest periods did in fact exist, due to the lack of records. Even with more recent personages, stories or anecdotes about the person often accumulate that have no basis in fact. Although the external aspects of a historical figure may be well documented, their inner nature can only be a subject of speculation. It can also not be only a subject of speculation as many historical figures such as
Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...
explicitly articulated their thoughts and intentions. With religious figures, often the subjects of voluminous literature, separating "fact" from "belief" can be difficult if not impossible.
Ancient figures
With older texts it can be difficult to be sure whether a person in the text is, in fact, a historical figure. "Wisdom literature" from early middle-eastern cultures (such as the
Book of Job
The Book of Job (; hbo, אִיּוֹב, ʾIyyōḇ), or simply Job, is a book found in the Ketuvim ("Writings") section of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), and is the first of the Poetic Books in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. Scholars are ...
), mainly consist of verbal expositions or discussions that must be considered the work of the author, rather than the character supposedly speaking. It may still be possible to identify a figure in such texts with a historical figure known from some other context, and the text may be taken as informative about this figure, even if not verified by an independent source. On the other hand, a text may include realistic settings and references to historical people, while the central character may or may not be a historical figure.
Fables
Napoleon spoke of history as being a
fable
Fable is a literary genre: a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a particular mora ...
which had been agreed upon:– "''la fable convenue qu'on appellera l'histoire''". Great figures of the past have stories told about them which grow in the telling, and so become
myth
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrati ...
s and
legend
A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess ...
s which may dominate or displace the more prosaic historical facts about them. For example, some ancient chroniclers said that the Emperor
Nero
Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68), was the fifth Roman emperor and final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 unt ...
fiddled while Rome burned, but
Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historiography, Roman historians by modern scholars.
The surviving portions of his t ...
disputed this by saying the stories were just malicious rumours. Similarly, there is no good evidence that
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne (; ; née Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an archduchess of Austria, and was the penultimate child and ...
ever said "let them eat cake", or that
Lady Godiva
Lady Godiva (; died between 1066 and 1086), in Old English , was a late Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who is relatively well documented as the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and a patron of various churches and monasteries. Today, she is mainly rem ...
rode naked through the streets of
Coventry
Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed ...
.
Personality
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. A leading writer of the Victorian era, he exerted a profound influence on 19th-century art, literature and philosophy.
Born in Ecclefechan, Dum ...
pointed out that even to the person living it, every life "remains in so many points unintelligible". The historian must struggle when writing biographies, "the very facts of which, to say nothing of the purport of them, we know not, and cannot know!"
Some psychologists have sought to understand the personalities of historical figures through clues about the way in which they were raised. However, this theoretical psychoanalytic approach is not supported empirically. An alternative approach, favored by
psychobiographers such as William Runyan, is to explain the personality of the historical figure in terms of their life history. This approach has the advantage of recognizing that personality may evolve over time in response to events.
Religious figures
With historical religious figures, fact and belief may be difficult to disentangle.
There are cultural differences in the treatment of historical figures. Thus the Chinese can recognise that
Mencius
Mencius ( ); born Mèng Kē (); or Mèngzǐ (; 372–289 BC) was a Chinese Confucian philosopher who has often been described as the "second Sage", that is, second to Confucius himself. He is part of Confucius' fourth generation of disciple ...
or
Confucius were historical individuals, while also endowing them with sanctity. In Indian
Hinduism, on the other hand, figures such as
Krishna
Krishna (; sa, कृष्ण ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme god in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is one o ...
or
Rama
Rama (; ), Ram, Raman or Ramar, also known as Ramachandra (; , ), is a major deity in Hinduism. He is the seventh and one of the most popular '' avatars'' of Vishnu. In Rama-centric traditions of Hinduism, he is considered the Supreme Bei ...
are almost always seen as embodiments of gods rather than as historical people. The
Nirvana Sutra
( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lamp Richard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo. ...
states: "Do not rely on the man but on the Dharma." A teacher such as
Gautama Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism.
According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in L ...
is thus treated almost exclusively as a lesser god rather than a historical figure.
E. P. Sanders
Ed Parish Sanders (April 18, 1937 – November 21, 2022) was an American New Testament scholar and a principal proponent of the "New Perspective on Paul". He was a major scholar in the scholarship on the historical Jesus and contributed to the v ...
, author of ''The Historical Figure of Jesus'', called
Jesus of Nazareth
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
"one of the most important figures in human history". Various writers have struggled to present
"historical" views of Jesus, as opposed to views distorted by belief. When writing about this subject, a historian who relies only on sources other than the
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christi ...
may be criticized for implying that it is not a sufficient source of information about the subject.
The theologian
Martin Kähler is known for his work ''Der sogenannte historische Jesus und der geschichtliche, biblische Christus'' (The so-called historical Jesus, and the historic, biblical Christ). He clearly distinguished between "the Jesus of history" and "the Christ of faith". Some historians openly admit bias, which may anyway be unavoidable. Paul Hollenback says he writes about the historical Jesus, "...in order to overthrow, not simply correct, the mistake called Christianity." Another historian who has written about Jesus, Frederick Gaiser, says, "historical investigation is part and parcel of biblical faith."
Political appropriation
A historical figure may be interpreted to support political aims.
In France in the first half of the seventeenth century, there was an outpouring of writing about
Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc (french: link=yes, Jeanne d'Arc, translit= �an daʁk} ; 1412 – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronati ...
, including seven biographies, three plays and an epic poem. Joan had become a symbol of national pride and the Catholic faith, helping unite a country that had been divided by the recent
wars of religion. The reality of the historical Joan was subordinated to the need for a symbol of feminine strength, Christian virtue and resistance to the English.
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...
, introducing his 1923 play ''
Saint Joan'', discussed representations of Joan by other authors.
He felt that
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
's depiction in ''
Henry VI, Part 1
''Henry VI, Part 1'', often referred to as ''1 Henry VI'', is a history play by William Shakespeare—possibly in collaboration with Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Nashe—believed to have been written in 1591. It is set during the lifetime ...
'' was constrained from making her a "beautiful and romantic figure" by political considerations.
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his '' nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his criticism of Christianity— ...
's version in his poem ''
La Pucelle d'Orléans'' was also flawed by Voltaire's biases and
Friedrich Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friendsh ...
's play ''
Die Jungfrau von Orleans'' "is not about Joan at all, and can hardly be said to pretend to be."
A historical figure may be used to validate a politician's claim to authority, where the modern leader shapes and exploits the ideas associated with the historical figure, which they are presumed to have inherited. Thus,
Jesse Jackson
Jesse Louis Jackson ( né Burns; born October 8, 1941) is an American political activist, Baptist minister, and politician. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as a shadow U.S. senator ...
has frequently evoked the spirit of
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 20 ...
often presented himself as following the path defined by
José Martí
José Julián Martí Pérez (; January 28, 1853 – May 19, 1895) was a Cuban nationalist, poet, philosopher, essayist, journalist, translator, professor, and publisher, who is considered a Cuban national hero because of his role in the libera ...
.
Hugo Chávez
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician who was president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013, except for a brief period in 2002. Chávez was also leader of the Fifth Republ ...
of Venezuela frequently identified himself with the historical figure
Simón Bolívar
Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios (24 July 1783 – 17 December 1830) was a Venezuelan military and political leader who led what are currently the countries of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Panama and B ...
, the liberator of South America from Spanish rule.
Georg Hegel
Georg may refer to:
* ''Georg'' (film), 1997
*Georg (musical), Estonian musical
* Georg (given name)
* Georg (surname)
* , a Kriegsmarine coastal tanker
See also
* George (disambiguation)
George may refer to:
People
* George (given name)
* ...
believed in the role of the state in guaranteeing individual liberties, and his views were therefore rejected by the German
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported th ...
, who considered him dangerously liberal and perhaps a proto-Marxist. On the other hand,
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...
identified himself as a Hegelian world historical figure, and justified his actions on this basis.
In education
Plato
Plato ( ; grc-gre, wikt:Πλάτων, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greeks, Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical Greece, Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thou ...
used historical figures in his writing, but only to illustrate his points.
Xenophon
Xenophon of Athens (; grc, Ξενοφῶν ; – probably 355 or 354 BC) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian, born in Athens. At the age of 30, Xenophon was elected commander of one of the biggest Greek mercenary armies o ...
used
Cyrus the Great in the same way.
When Plato apparently quotes
Socrates
Socrates (; ; –399 BC) was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and among the first moral philosophers of the ethical tradition of thought. An enigmatic figure, Socrates authored no te ...
in ''
The Republic'', it is only to add dramatic effect to the presentation of his own thought. For this reason, Plato's writings on Socrates tell us little, at least directly, about Socrates. The historical figure is used only as a device for communicating Plato's ideas. In classical Rome, students of rhetoric had to master the ''
suasoria
Suasoria is an exercise in rhetoric: a form of declamation in which the student makes a speech which is the soliloquy of an historical figure debating how to proceed at a critical junction in his life. As an academic exercise, the speech is delive ...
'' — a form of
declamation
Declamation (from the Latin: ''declamatio'') is an artistic form of public speaking. It is a dramatic oration designed to express through articulation, emphasis and gesture the full sense of the text being conveyed.
History
In Ancient Rome, decla ...
in which they wrote the soliloquy of a historical figure who was debating a critical course of action. For example, the poet
Juvenal
Decimus Junius Juvenalis (), known in English as Juvenal ( ), was a Roman poet active in the late first and early second century CE. He is the author of the collection of satirical poems known as the ''Satires''. The details of Juvenal's life ...
wrote a speech for the dictator
Sulla
Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (; 138–78 BC), commonly known as Sulla, was a Roman general and statesman. He won the first large-scale civil war in Roman history and became the first man of the Republic to seize power through force.
Sulla had t ...
, in which he was counselled to retire. The poet
Ovid
Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the t ...
enjoyed this exercise more than the other final challenge — the ''
controversia
A ''controversia'' is an exercise in rhetoric; a form of declamation in which the student speaks for one side in a notional legal case such as treason or poisoning. The facts of the matter and relevant law are presented in a persuasive manner, i ...
''.
The German philosopher
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his care ...
wrote an influential essay "On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life". He said "the unhistorical and historical are necessary in equal measure for the health of an individual, of a people and of a culture."
Nietzsche identifies three approaches to history, each with dangers.
The monumental approach describes the glories of the past, often focusing on heroic figures like
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen".
Eli ...
,
King Robert the Bruce or
Louis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur (, ; 27 December 1822 – 28 September 1895) was a French chemist and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation and pasteurization, the latter of which was named after ...
.
By treating these figures as models, the student is tempted to consider that there can be nobody of such stature today.
The antiquarian view examines the past in minute and reverent detail, turning its back on the present.
The critical approach challenges traditional views, even though they may be valid.
Historical figures may today be simulated as
animated pedagogical agents to teach history and foreign culture. An example is
Freudbot, which acted the part of
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts in ...
for psychology students. When a variety of simulated character types were tried as educational agents, students rated historical figures as the most engaging.
There are
gender differences in the perception of historical figures. When modern US schoolchildren were asked to roleplay or illustrate historical stereotypes, boys tended to focus upon male figures exclusively while girls showed more varied family groupings.
In branding
Using historical figures in marketing communicationsn and in branding is a new area of marketing research but historical figures’ names were used to promote products as early as in the Middle Ages.
Historical figure brand is using famous historical person in branding, for instance
Mozartkugel,
Chopin (vodka) or Café Einstein https://www.cafeeinstein.com/.
Historical figure is a person who lived in the past and whose deeds exerted a significant impact on other people’s lives and consciousness. These figures are attributed with certain features that are a compilation of the actual values they proclaimed and the manner they were perceived by others. This perception evolves and subsequent generations read the biography of a given historical figure in their own way through their own knowledge and experience. In order to determine the popularity of the commercialisation of historical figures, a study was conducted at the beginning of 2014 on the number of trademark protection applications filed with the Patent Office of the Republic of Poland as a measure of entrepreneurs’ interest in this activity. The names of 300 most prominent Polish historical figures were considered. The study showed that over 21% of the names analysed were recorded in the trademark register. 1,033 trademark protection applications were filed for 64 names out of the 300 historical figures investigated
Lipka Aldona, Ograniczona racjonalność i heurystyki w zachowaniach nabywców [w:">ldona Lipka, 2015,[Lipka Aldona, Ograniczona racjonalność i heurystyki w zachowaniach nabywców [w:]G. Wolska (red.), Współczesne problemy ekonomiczne, Zeszyty Naukowe nr 858, Wyd. Uniwersytet Szczeciński, Szczecin 2015. p. 265.(https://scholar.google.pl/citations?user=8g7DDDkAAAAJ&hl=pl&oi=ao)]. The greatest number of trademark protection applications were recorded for Mieszko I of Poland, Mieszko (295), followed by Nicolaus Copernicus (250), John III Sobieski (94) and Chopin (81).
In art and literature
Realist historical fiction
There is a huge body of historical fiction, where the text includes both imaginary and factual elements. In early English literature,
Robin Hood
Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archery, archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he ...
was a fictional character, but the historical King
Richard I of England
Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was over ...
also appears.
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
wrote
plays about people who were historical figures in his day, such as ''
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...
''. He did not present these people as pure history, but dramatised their lives as a commentary about the people and politics of his own time.
Napoleon figured in
Victor Hugo's 1862 classic ''
Les Misérables
''Les Misérables'' ( , ) is a French historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published in 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century.
In the English-speaking world, the novel is usually referred to by its origina ...
''.
There are many more examples.
The compiler of a survey of historical novels in the 1920s claimed that the "appearance of reality ... is the great charm of the historical novel." He went on to assert, regarding novels about periods of which little is known, that "the danger is that the very elements which add to our interest in the tale as such will go far to mislead us in our conception of the period dealt with".
Traditionally the treatment of historical figures in fiction was realistic in style and respectful of fact. A historical novel would be true to the facts known about the period in which the novel is set, a
biographical novel
The biographical novel is a genre of novel which provides a fictional account of a contemporary or historical person's life. Like other forms of biographical fiction, details are often trimmed or reimagined to meet the artistic needs of the fictio ...
would follow the facts that are known about the protagonist's life, and a "
roman à clef
''Roman à clef'' (, anglicised as ), French for ''novel with a key'', is a novel about real-life events that is overlaid with a façade of fiction. The fictitious names in the novel represent real people, and the "key" is the relationship b ...
" would try to give an accurate interpretation of what is known about a public figure's private life. In each genre, the novelist would avoid introducing any elements that were clearly in conflict with the facts.
A writer may be handicapped by his readers' preconceptions about a historical person, which may or may not be accurate, and the facts about the historical person may also conflict with the novelist's plot requirements.
According to the Marxist philosopher
György Lukács
György Lukács (born György Bernát Löwinger; hu, szegedi Lukács György Bernát; german: Georg Bernard Baron Lukács von Szegedin; 13 April 1885 – 4 June 1971) was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher, literary historian, critic, and aest ...
in his 1937 book on ''The Historical Novel'', "The 'world-historical individual' can only figure as a minor character in the
istoricalnovel because of the complexity and intricacy of the whole social-historical process."
As Jacobs observes, the "realist aesthetic" of the historical novel "assumes that a recognizable historical figure in fiction must not 'do things' its model did not do in real life; it follows that historical figures can be used only in very limited ways."
The author of a traditional historical novel should therefore focus more on the people who have been lost to history.
A novelist such as Sir
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy'' ...
or
Leo Tolstoy
Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...
(''
War and Peace
''War and Peace'' (russian: Война и мир, translit=Voyna i mir; pre-reform Russian: ; ) is a literary work by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy that mixes fictional narrative with chapters on history and philosophy. It was first published ...
'') would describe historical events accurately. They would give rein to their imagination only in scenes that were not significant historically, when interactions with fictional characters could safely be introduced.
Modern fiction
More recently, however, starting with works such as ''
The Confessions of Nat Turner
''The Confessions of Nat Turner'' is a 1967 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by American writer William Styron. Presented as a first-person narrative by historical figure Nat Turner, the novel concerns Nat Turner's slave rebellion in Virginia in 1 ...
'', and ''
Sophie's Choice'' by
William Styron
William Clark Styron Jr. (June 11, 1925 – November 1, 2006) was an American novelist and essayist who won major literary awards for his work.
Styron was best known for his novels, including:
* '' Lie Down in Darkness'' (1951), his acclaimed fi ...
,
the novelist has felt more free to introduce much larger amounts of purely imaginary detail about historical people.
E. L. Doctorow
Edgar Lawrence Doctorow (January 6, 1931 – July 21, 2015) was an American novelist, editor, and professor, best known for his works of historical fiction.
He wrote twelve novels, three volumes of short fiction and a stage drama. They included ...
illustrates this different attitude when discussing his book ''
Ragtime
Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that flourished from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers such as Scott ...
'': "Certain details were so delicious that I was scrupulous about getting them right. Others ... demanded to be mythologized." This reflects a changing attitude about the distinction between "fact" and "truth", expressed by
Ursule Molinaro when he makes his
Cassandra
Cassandra or Kassandra (; Ancient Greek: Κασσάνδρα, , also , and sometimes referred to as Alexandra) in Greek mythology was a Trojan priestess dedicated to the god Apollo and fated by him to utter true prophecies but never to be belie ...
say, "I've come as close to the truth as facts would let me ... facts oppress the truth, which can breathe freely only in poetry & art."
Other media
Many films have depicted historical figures. Often the way in which the films interpret these figures and their times reflects the social and cultural values of the period in which the film was made.
Historical figures are familiar to the general reader and so may be used in
speculative fiction
Speculative fiction is a term that has been used with a variety of (sometimes contradictory) meanings. The broadest interpretation is as a category of fiction encompassing genres with elements that do not exist in reality, recorded history, nat ...
so that readers marvel at their appearance in novel settings or with a fresh perspective.
For example, the time traveler
The Doctor has encountered numerous historical figures such as
Marco Polo
Marco Polo (, , ; 8 January 1324) was a Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' (also known as ''Book of the Marv ...
and
Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen".
Eli ...
in his adventures.
They appeared most frequently when the television series first started, as it was directed at children and the use of historical figures in historical settings was intended to be educational.
See also
*
Celebrity
Celebrity is a condition of fame and broad public recognition of a person or group as a result of the attention given to them by mass media. An individual may attain a celebrity status from having great wealth, their participation in sports ...
(the modern-day equivalent)
*
List of oldest documents
*
List of historical drama films and series set in Near Eastern and Western civilization
*
List of biographical films
*
Historical figures sometimes considered autistic
*
List of historical opera characters
This is a list of historical figures who have been characters in opera or operetta.
Historical accuracy in such works has often been subject to the imperatives of dramatic presentation. Consequently, in many cases:
* historical characters appe ...
*
List of wealthiest historical figures
Many historical individuals have been described as one of "the wealthiest" ever. This list presents individuals prior to the beginning of contemporary history (which began after World War II) and gathers published estimates of their ( inflation- ...
* ''
The World's Billionaires
''The World's Billionaires'' is an annual ranking by documented net worth of the wealthiest billionaires in the world, compiled and published in March annually by the American business magazine ''Forbes''. The list was first published in Marc ...
''
*
Persons of National Historic Significance
Persons of National Historic Significance (National Historic People) are people designated by the Canadian government as being nationally significant in the history of the country. Designations are made by the Minister of the Environment on the r ...
(Canada)
Notes
References
Citations
Sources
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External links
*{{Commonscatinline, Historical persons
Figure