Friedrich von Petersdorff

It is a peculiarity of historical research and historiography that historical accounts are bound to be rewritten at some point in the future, i.e. whenever a certain past is being reviewed due to new questions being asked or new sources becoming available. It follows that accounts of past events are necessarily of a temporary validity only, despite the fact that the available sources represent factual reality and are accessed by today’s historians aiming at a meaningful appropriation of past events in the interest of current purposes. Film and filmed reality, too, is one of the many objects qualifying as a feasible source for historians. However, given the fact that filmed reality has acquired the potential to establish its own version of reality (because of and despite its mediality), a further reflection upon the real of reality as historical source appears to be required. In my paper, therefore, I shall analyse in detail the distinguishing notions and operations enabling to keep apart film as historical source versus film as providing a secondary view upon reality, i.e. despite the entanglement of both instances of reality on film. In the course of my analysis I shall refer to and take into consideration the relevant studies by Arthur Danto (1924-2013) on narrative sentences within historiography and by Niklas Luhmann (1927-1998) on mass media and on the temporal aspects of the dimensions of meaningfulness. In my conclusion I shall point out how reality on film can act as historical source as well as a substitute of reality.

Friedrich von Petersdorff studied philosophy, history as well as media. He studied in Marburg, Germany, where he obtained his M.A., and is now an independent scholar. His research is mainly focussed on the epistemological and theoretical questions regarding historiography. His aim is to achieve a better understanding of the procedures and the underlying structures involved in historical research and in historical writing. He, therefore, analyses not only the methodological requirements of historiography but foremost the epistemological and temporal aspects involved. He has presented various papers on these topics and has published on Paul Ricœur (2004), Theodor Lessing (2006) and on Nietzsche and Hitchcock (2009).