Giving voice.

Abstract

The expression "giving voice" has replaced the expression "making history" to describe what a historian does. What does it mean? Does this imply a paradigm shift? Has anything changed in the way history is made when it comes to voice? What is voice, and how can its history be written? What role does fiction (or effet-monde) play in coming to terms with this elusive concept? Can it point to particular politics of traces shared by both historical and literary writing? Drawing on the works of Giorgio Agamben, Elias Canetti, Michel Foucault, Alain Corbin, and Peter Brown, this article attempts to outline some tentative answers.