THE CREATION OF HELLENISTIC WORLD AS HISTORICAL SPACE (SOME OF COMPOSITIONAL METHODS OF J.G. DROYSEN)

Abstract

The article is concentrated on the issue of great importance having two sides at once. This multifaceted issue comprises the episode of history of historical science of XIX century and theoretical aspect of its self-consciousness rise simultaneously. The last one hints to the roots of professional history establishment. Previously history used to be nothing but the reading of good style, or the selection of moral stories at least (both addressed to anyone). There was no special meaning of its orientation to non-existent Past and, thus, no understanding of the Past’s importance for mankind even if no connection with contemporary life was evident.

The constellation of newborn professionalism with two influential currents of thought of the period – romanticism and classicism – lied beneath this process. According to our research, these trends existed at the same time and showed out much interdependence. The issue of our main interest is the classicist research of Hellenistic world by German historian and methodologist Johann Gustav Droysen. The creator of new research subject, so-called Hellenism, he used the topic as the field of experiments. The number of novelties among working tools to deal with historical space (given in comparison to analogical ones in the output of another great German historian of the period, Leopold von Ranke) reveal the increasing possibilities of the representation of period non-corresponding to the view of ancient historians (never been able to spot Hellenistic world as integrity). No wonder that the inventions made by Droysen became acceptable for upcoming generations of researchers and got their further development. These aspects of the problem are touched in the article too. All the above mentioned aspects are significant for the development of modern theoretic history.