Psychologized historical writing: Explanation and narratives in popular historiography of Josef Petráň
Abstract
The chapter is concerned with explanational and narrative strategies in popular historiography from 1970s to 1990s, especially in books written by J. Petráň.
After presenting the main trends of post-World War II psychohistory, the author concentrates on debates about psychologizing concepts in the recent Czech historiography, above all on a rare attempt to operationalize psychohistorical terms and conceptual frameworks in Petráň´s book Rebelie (1975). In the concluding part the author draws her attention to limits of such an approach and she thematises the role Petráň´s statements on psychology and emotions of characters played in the narrativity of his texts.
They could be understood as one of crucial organizing principles of this kind of popular historiography, the autor shows how an universalizing psychological typology a stereotypes participated on the tropology, modes of emplotment, argument as well as ideological implications of Petráň´s books.