The field of history had their - oh, this is a thing - moment quite a few decades ago with Hayden White. It is a good example of the underlying issue.
Hayden White's assertion that "history is fiction" was (and still is) a complex one, not intended to dismiss the factual accuracy of historical narratives (as it is more often than not portraied).
Instead, it highlights the interpretive nature of historical writing and the way historians shape their accounts of the past through literary and rhetorical techniques. White argues that historians, like novelists, use narrative structures and stylistic devices to construct meaning from historical events.
Hayden White's assertion that "history is fiction" was (and still is) a complex one, not intended to dismiss the factual accuracy of historical narratives (as it is more often than not portraied).
Instead, it highlights the interpretive nature of historical writing and the way historians shape their accounts of the past through literary and rhetorical techniques. White argues that historians, like novelists, use narrative structures and stylistic devices to construct meaning from historical events.