The Ernest Renan's history writing in "Life of Jesus (Origins of Christianity)" (1845-1863)

• Grant number: 11/03268-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 01, 2011
• End date: December 31, 2011
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Theory and Philosophy of History
• Principal Investigator: Karina Anhezini de Araujo
• Grantee: Thiago Augusto Modesto Rudi
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Letras (FCL-ASSIS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Assis. Assis , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The emergence of the historiography history is closely related to the need for reflection on the historian's profession. In this area, there is the possibility of considering objects and subjects as historical making. Nevertheless, it became relevant the concern to understand the tensions and disputes that, in earlier eras, allowed separate "re-inventions of the past". Based on this interpretation, this project aims at seizing the writing of French intellectual history of Joseph-Ernest Renan (1823-1892) in his book "Life of Jesus (Origins of Christianity)" (1845-1863). In that book, the author demonstrates the possibility of working with imagination and intuition and the impossibility of being limited to a scientific and rational search for truth. The present study brings more complexity to the understanding of a writing system, constantly considered as the basis of a scientific and rational conception of history. Through research, one target contributing to studies of the historiography history and history theory aimed at greater understanding of the various written histories of the nineteenth century. According to this, it seeks to understand the following pairs of concepts highlighted in the interpretive work of the French intellectual: true / rational, art / divination; so as to interpret the meanings of the notions of objectivity, imagination, conjecture, intuition and style in Renan's writing. The printed source above will be methodologically used, as well as the notion of historiographical operation, under which the construction of history can be understood as the combination of a social place, a scientific practice and writing.