Skazani na fikcje? Historia spekulatywna, kontr[f]aktualność i żywe archiwa

This article discusses two books: Fikcje jako metoda. Strategie kontr[f]aktualne w pisaniu historii, literaturze, sztukach [Fictions as Method: Counter[f]actual Strategies in History Writing, Literature and Arts] (ed. Małgorzata Sugiera, Kraków 2018) and Performanse pamięci w literaturach i sztukach [Performances of Memory in Literatures and Arts] (ed. Mateusz Borowski, Krakow 2020), both of which foreground the theme of counterfactual history and the role of fiction in disarming fossilized, often imposed visions of the past. The author of the article focuses on this problem, referring to the criticism of rhetorical patterns in historical discourse and of its objectivist illusions; nevertheless, she defends the “obligation to truth” as an element of research work. She argues that artistic counterfactual activity constitutes an alternative form of research and discovery, involving different modes of communication and aware of the role of mediatedness. As forms of working with memory, with the past conditioning the present or repressed and forgotten, they broaden and activate historical awareness, enabling a critical revision of social conceptions.