Friedrich Schillers Geschichte des Abfalls der vereinigten Niederlande. Aspekte zum aktuellen Forschungsstand

Abstract

The History of the Secession of the Netherlands from the Spanish Kingdom (1788), the first of Schiller’s historical writings, is the starting point for the analysis of the author’s position in historical texts within the framework of historiographical studies. This paper attempts to approach the subject from two different perspectives. The first (one) is connected mainly with Schiller’s contribution to the methodology of historiography in the period between the Enlightenment and historicism, this approach being inextricably linked with the handling of primary historical sources. The second one concerns the contribution of discourse analysis to the study of Schiller’s historical texts, i.e., the application of new instruments to the study of narrative aspects and text composition.