CLIO'S DILEMMA: A PARATEXTUAL READING OF THE HERCULANIAN HISTORICAL NOVEL

Abstract

The goal of this study is to analyse the historiography thought of Alexandre Herculano, based upon the paratexts with which the writer has enriched his fictional work. The purpose of this analysis is to show how Alexandre Herculano viewed History, within the constraints imposed by the scientific paradigm of his time, which dominated or intended to dominate all areas of knowledge and also how he saw himself forced to make use of the historical fiction in order to, joining it to history, produce the synthesis of a global mankind which he pursued.