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Un dśbat: Les mentalltćs collectives

SOURCES, DYNAMICS, STRUCTURES, EXPLANATIONS OF CHANGE

ALEXANDRU DUJU

The history of mentalities has enlisted by no w its predecessors, as it stUl keeps on defining its objectives. In this sense, Alphonse Dupront remarked, on the occasion of a Romanian-French colloąuiuni held in Bucharest, that as regards the history of mentalities : “il faut dire d’entrt'e <le jeu qu’elle est toute entiere & faire, mais aussi que depuis que 1’histoire est 1’histoire, elle exi8te”¹. There are quite a lot of Romanian contri-butions- in this field and sonie of them are important; the most recent ones seem the most successful ². Together with other types of studies belonging to historians from Bałkan countries interested in this geo-graphical area researches in mentalities could eventually reach a twofold goal: on the one hand, to make disappear this type of historical writing J. H. Hexter called “tunnel history” — “the pursuit of one theme in history to the neglect of its relationship with other themes” ³ — , and on the other, to develop the pluri-disciplinary research which might help historians reconstitute European history as a whole ⁴. It becomes quite elear nowadays that positmstic history has ignored many sides of reality, simply beeause it did not accept another approach to reality than the one based on pure facts. Thus the fascinating diversity of European eirilisation has been masked by cultural models built up with esemplary facts. The history of mentalities might modify this very simple scheme which had in wiew the diffusion of one single cultural model all over Europę at a certain moment; instead, a multitude of models which did once exist in Europę and in the whole world might be brought bhck to light.

We do not wish to repeat the arguments we brought elsewhere^{5 6 7 8}; we wish to discuss here a few basie problems connected with the history of mentalities as it might be applied to South-East Europę :

1

^Ł Alphonse Dupront, D’une htstoire des mentaliUs, *‘Revue Rohmaine d’HIstoire”» 1970' 3, p. 381. On the history of mentalities, see the contributions published In various syntheses by Georges Duby (in VHtstoire et ses mćthodes ), Robert Mandrou, Jacąues Le Goff (ln Faire de l^f Htstoire, vol. 3) and Philippe Arl^s (ln La Nouvelle Htstoire).

2

* On Romanian contributions to this field useful data by Lucian Bola, Uhistoriographie roumaine etTicole des “Annalcs⁹⁹. Quelqu.cs tnterfćrences, "Analele Universitfttii Bucureęti. Istorie", 1979, p. 31-40.

3

⁸ J. H. Hexter, JReappraisals in History, London, 1961- and Diarmaid MacCulloch, Kett*s Rebellion tn Context, "Past and Present”, 84, 1979.

4

In this sense, my article L⁹ótude comparće des cultures europtennes et la recherche inter-

5

disciplinalre, "Revue des ćtudes sud-est europćennes”, 1974, 2, p. 195—203.

6

Mostly in MentaliUs, durie ei “le paradigme des Annales", "Revue Roumaine d'His-

7

toire^,,ł 1979, 1, p. 175—180 and ln Ce aduce nou istoria mentalit&filorl "RomAnia llterarft”,

8

14/1980.

9

^EV. 6TUDES SUD-EST EUROP., XVIII. 4. P. 557-572, BUCARESt. 1980