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the historical (political science or other) treatise through the logic of the story while “orienting” the reader in that the reader is via the accompanying commentary normatively guided in the chronology of historical events to “comprehend” the story in terms of its meaning18. The narrator as a fictional storyteller thus becomes (as if) “component” of the historical narrative of the given event in a similar way as its individual actors.

A fictional narrator is identified as an anonymous voice with a varying degree of activity. A narrator is a commentator of the story. (Historical) events commented by him/her are let to stop in time. Interrupting the story of historical events allows comments on the given event. The fact that through the interruption of events the narrator gets to a certain decision-making node allows for the combining of the reconstruction of the story with a construction. Disruption of the interpretation of historical events, stopping at a certain point of the decision-making node allows the narrator to “reverse” the run of a narrative from reconstruction to construction and get across from the level of actually occurred historical events to the level of a conceivable world. This allows the narrator to uncover the meaning of already realised pursuance of actors, to reveal the contribution of actual pursuance and its actual results for further historical evolution and to comment on the importance of historical events in terms of the further, subsequent evolution19. As evident, a narrator in this case acts as a normatively oriented “interpreter” of the given event, as a commentator who tells the recipient its attitudes, opinions and assessment of the event. A narrative thus becomes a presentation of the given event or events, respectively. Such presentation value orients the given recipient who receives such an evaluation of events, respectively the recipient becomes – in the absence of other relevant information – significantly affected by it.20 A narrator within the discourse gives not 18 As an example of this “guidance” may serve Dialogues by Plato.

19 An example may be the significance of activity of Czech legions in the First World War for the creation of an independent Czechoslovak state.

20 As an example of a normative assessment of an event may serve the deposition of Pope John XXIII at the Council of Constance, which the “narrator” Vavřinec z Březové (author of Hussites‘ Chronicle) assesses using the following words: “And among others were within the twenty-three articles, listed against that Pope John XXIII, presented these very heinous crimes, namely that mister John was and is an oppressor of the poor, persecutor of justice, pillar of rogues, column of simonies, connoisseur of flesh, sediment of vices, far of virtues, avoiding public consistories and totally devoted to sleep and other body lusts, the complete opposite of life and morals of Christ ... Furthermore, that mister Pope John XXIII committed fornication with his brother’s wife and with consecrated nuns, defiled virgins, committed adultery with married women and wrought incontinence and other offenses ... and even claimed and stubbornly believed that a human soul fades along with a human body away and dies as

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only a narrative of a course of the given event, but at the same time (albeit covertly) communicates to the recipient its value attitude towards the given event. In such a way we may reconstruct also the normative structure (order) of discursive formation. The given historical event thus reveals to us within value-based paradigm of a discourse. The given historical event is thus revealed to us as an event seen through the optics of a normative attitude of the narrator. On the other hand, the event is “seen” as perceived by the recipient21. That is to say, the recipient does not necessarily have to uncritically accept the normative explication of the narrator. S/he may preserve a distance to it. S/he may also take over as a narrator and “retell” the historical event from the perspective of a different discursive paradigm. The essence of the issue is graphically presented in Figure 21.

To understand the issue of “retelling” we shall, within a discourse, distinguish two main levels of narrative. The first level is a time-line of interpretation. Within the composition of a narrative it stands as a constant of narration. Time of events, which is a chronology and sequence of individual events resulting in the “ultimate” outcome of history, remains constant. If we assume the same historical event from November 8, 1620 that took place as the Battle of White Mountain (Bitva na Bílé hoře), it will always relate to the summary of events that occurred on that day, although the interpretation of the issue (in terms of its impact on further historical evolution of our countries) may differ depending on the perspective of a given narrator. The historical time dimension of the given event and its temporal dimension remain constant in any scientific discourse about the given event. That is to say, time is the axis of the debate about the given event, pointing towards the flow of events that result in the ultimate outcome. What may, however, change is the substance horizon of the given event as an object of interpretation. This dumb animals, and claimed against the article on the resurrection that those who are once dead will absolutely not wake up, even on the final day.” (Vavřinec z Březové. Husitská kronika.

Píseň o vítězství u Domažlic. (Hussite Chronicle. Song of the Victory at Domažlice). Prague: Svoboda, 1979, p. 19). Such a normative assessment of events clearly affects the recipient since it “directs” towards a normative position on events in a sense of their “acceptance” or “rejection” in the context of the value-based world of the given recipient. From the perspective of a scientific inquiry, a normative assessment should be such that the interpretation does not ideologically distort the event presented by a narrator.

21 As a recipient I may perceive the deposition of Pope John XXIII not through the normative view of Vavřinec z Březové, but as an act of struggle for power whose victims became Baldassarre Cossa (Pope John XXIII), Pedro Martínez de Luna (Benedict XIII) and Angelo Correr (Gregory XII).

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Time aspect of events (historical time of events) as a constant of narration

Original discourse described by the narrator N1

A1

A1

An A

Re-narrated discourse described by the narrator N2 An

A

Actors of actions and their importance as variables of narration

Figure 21: Re-narrated discourse Source: Author.

is due to the fact that a narrator may retell the given historical event without “distorting” historical facts. Subjects of actions and importance of their pursuance thus become variables within the retold discourse. This is due to the fact that individual concepts may vary in their meaning. The level of meaning of a narrative as a whole as well and its “ingredients” are a semantic variable. Therefore, the semantic level of the story may also differ. However, the constant of a narrative must remain preserved – i.e. the historical time of events.

Individual component events and roles of actors are within a narrative of the story from the perspective of a narrator treated as variables. A narrator finds them as objects that s/he “signs” in terms of their importance for the examined ultimate event. This “signing,” respectively a sort of “labelling” in terms of their meaning, corresponds to the value vision of a narrator. A narrator within the reconstruction of events communicates what s/he sees. What is “seen” is conditional to who perceives it.

A narrator tells what s/he sees either him/herself or what see the actors of historical events, and seeks to answer the question “why do the given actors see it the way they do?”

It once again holds true that the historical time of the event is a constant to a narrative. It takes the form of information about the tem-

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