History Revived by Language. A. T. Laurian's Romanticist Meta-History

Victor Tudor ROŞU
History Revived by Language. A. T. Laurian's Romanticist Meta-History
Institution: 
National Museum of the Union, Alba Iulia, Romania
Author's email: 
tudor.rosu@yahoo.co.uk
Abstract: 

The present article discusses the problem of language in the historical works of August Treboniu Laurian, an important man of culture and a revolutionary from the middle of the 19th century. The paper analyses the stylistic elements, contextualizing the presence and conformation of these indicators, often varying from one work to the other. The paper discusses elements of spelling, vocabulary, and historical terminology, which is Laurian’s case take on a Latinist form, standing as evidence for his purist conviction appearing in most of his works. Moreover, these aspects are also treated from the perspective of their contribution to the historiographic expression of the 19thcentury. A major point of the article is the attempt to place the structure of Laurian’s work in Hayden White’s famous scheme for 19th century historians (presented in his Metahistory), in which the consideration and relating of a historical construction follows the direction of formal argument, structure, ideological implication, and basic stylistic devices.

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