Counterfactual History as a Part of the Legitimate Scholarly Discipline

Abstract

The emergence of the first alternative history of Serbia and the thematic issue of a literary journal devoted to counterfactual history drew attention to the necessity to analyze this phenomenon from a historiographical perspective. This paper outlines the historical and theoretical foundations of counterfactualism in European and American historiography and literature.

Summary: This article analyzes the historiographical and theoretical basis of counterfactual thinking in historiography and literature, as well as the development of these topics, narratives, and their main authors. Additionally, specific features of counterfactual history in Serbian culture are also examined. The author presents the theoretical foundation of modern counterfactual history as part of a scholarly discipline. He also analyzes the works of Catherine Gallagher, Niall Ferguson, and Elazar Weinryb and lists and describes the historical examples of counterfactual thinking, from Thucydides, Joanot Martorell, and Pier Damiani, to Louis Geoffroy-Château, Isaac D’Israeli, and Winston Churchill. The article concludes with an assessment of the usability of the counterfactual history in contemporary historical literature.