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medieval worlds • no. 10 • 2019
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Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften Austrian Academy of Sciences Press
A-1011 Wien, Dr. Ignaz Seipel-Platz 2
Tel. +43-1-515 81/DW 3420, Fax +43-1-515 81/DW 3400 https://verlag.oeaw.ac.at, e-mail: verlag@oeaw.ac.at |
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DATUM, UNTERSCHRIFT / DATE, SIGNATURE
BANK AUSTRIA CREDITANSTALT, WIEN (IBAN AT04 1100 0006 2280 0100, BIC BKAUATWW), DEUTSCHE BANK MÜNCHEN (IBAN DE16 7007 0024 0238 8270 00, BIC DEUTDEDBMUC)
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medieval worlds • no. 10 • 2019, pp. 2-16, 2019/11/28
This article focuses on how different pasts were constructed in the late and post-Carolingian world. In order to create a past, authors active around the year 900 chose different strategies: they made use of specific text formats in order to distance themselves from the past; they drew on alternative sources and a new vocabulary. They changed the scale of their observation and took new liberties with their narratives, as they were not as firmly bound to inherited narratives as their predecessors had been. This had an effect on their authorial posture within their texts. Through their specific use of the past, these authors not only attempted to provide an image of a new reality – they went beyond this. By breaking off the present from the past, or emphasising certain aspects of the past while »forgetting« others, they were making an important contribution to the re-formation of their world.
Keywords: Carolingians; historiography; annals; social memory; empire; kingdoms