De erfenis van Jacques Presser. Waardering en gebruik van egodocumenten in de geschiedwetenschap

Samenvatting

The Legacy of Jacques Presser. Egodocuments in Historical Research. In the mid-1950s, historian Jacob Presser introduced a new word -- egodocument -- used as a term to indicate autobiographies, memoirs, diaries, personal letters, and other texts in which the author writes explicitly about his or her own affairs and feelings. The word was quickly adopted in the Dutch language, but the timing was bad; Presser's colleagues were more reluctant than ever to use such texts. Since the 1980s, the new cultural history has returned to egodocuments. Among the reading public, egodocuments have always remained popular, which explains the paradox of the diary of Anne Frank, widely read but, until recently, little studied. Adapted from the source document.