The Literature of Fiction as a Historial Source

Abstract

Taking as reference the book written by Isabel Burdiel and Justo Serna and titled La historia cultural o Por qué los historiadores deberíamos leer novelas (1996), this paper aspires to make a theoretical-methodological synthesis around the importance of language, and more specifically the words, in the historical construction of the different social identities. Starting from the use of fiction literature as a historical source, and taking a brief tour of structural linguistics and poststructuralism, but also by the notions of culture developed by Antonio Gramsci and Raymond Williams, the objective would be to explain some of their fundamental concepts developed by Mikhail Bakhtin and that turn language into a place of social struggle. Thus demonstrating how well-approached fictional literature is capable of providing valuable historical information that enriches what we already know from other sources.

Keywords

• historia cultural
• Mijaíl Bajtín
• metodología
• Antonio Gramsci