Człowiek w imperium czasu, sens w imperium znaków. Hermeneutyka a sens historii

The linguistic turn has emphasized the linguistic aspect of history as a kind of a tale, unveiling its ideological foundations and rhetorical structure. This article’s aim is, however, to prove how seeing history as a collection of texts enables us to regain its subjective sense. The authoress considers the fears of historians’ manipulations as well as the validity of »the sense of history«’s question and shows that hermeneutics restores that validity in the epoch after metanarratives’ defeat. Referring to Ricoeur, Gadamer, Marquard, Vattimo and also a sociologist Jan Szczepański, this paper displays that we could be perceived as a product of history, but the interpretation of historical texts, sources and traditions, deepens our “being-in-the-world”. History appears to be the dialectics of being a product and creating, it relies on decision and obligation. Having understood, how the past mediated by texts – historical interpretations – influences our conduct, we could give it new senses.